Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) Price Target Raised to $170.00 at Evercore ISI

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) had its price objective increased by Evercore ISI from $160.00 to $170.00 in a research note published on Thursday,Benzinga reports. Evercore ISI currently has an in-line rating on the restaurant operator’s stock.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Sanford C. Bernstein cut Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $140.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $148.00 to $151.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $146.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. Seventeen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $155.19.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of Yum! Brands stock opened at $148.65 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $41.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.90. The business has a 50-day moving average of $151.89 and a two-hundred day moving average of $140.88. Yum! Brands has a 1 year low of $122.13 and a 1 year high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.29 by $0.01. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 20.33% and a net margin of 19.68%. The business had revenue of $1.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.85 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.15 EPS. Yum! Brands’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands will post 5.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st were given a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.91%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 21st. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is presently 54.41%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 5,139 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $146.70, for a total value of $753,891.30. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 157,893 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,162,903.10. This trade represents a 3.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 8,638 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.36, for a total transaction of $1,367,913.68. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 2,970 shares in the company, valued at $470,329.20. The trade was a 74.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 55,271 shares of company stock worth $8,706,576 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Yum! Brands

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Wayfinding Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the 1st quarter valued at $32,000. Financial Gravity Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in Yum! Brands in the 1st quarter worth about $38,000. Finally, Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC bought a new position in Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter valued at about $33,000. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Yum! Brands

Yum! Brands, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, develops, operates, and franchises quick service restaurants worldwide. The company operates through the KFC Division, the Taco Bell Division, the Pizza Hut Division, and the Habit Burger Grill Division segments. It also operates restaurants under the KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and The Habit Burger Grill brands, which specialize in chicken, pizza, made-to-order chargrilled burgers, sandwiches, Mexican-style food categories, and other food products.