Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) Price Target Raised to $158.00

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) had its target price boosted by Piper Sandler from $157.00 to $158.00 in a report issued on Wednesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have a neutral rating on the restaurant operator’s stock.

YUM has been the subject of several other reports. Guggenheim lowered their target price on Yum! Brands from $167.00 to $160.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 28th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Morgan Stanley set a $165.00 price objective on Yum! Brands in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Royal Bank Of Canada started coverage on Yum! Brands in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. They issued a “sector perform” rating and a $165.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $166.29.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 0.8%

Shares of NYSE:YUM opened at $148.84 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $41.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a 50 day moving average of $146.49 and a two-hundred day moving average of $146.25. Yum! Brands has a 52-week low of $122.13 and a 52-week high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.58 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $1.98 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.96 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 18.11% and a negative return on equity of 21.01%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.37 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 12th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 2nd were issued a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 2nd. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is 55.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, Director Weir Mirian M. Graddick sold 2,038 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $145.30, for a total transaction of $296,121.40. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 1,233 shares in the company, valued at $179,154.90. The trade was a 62.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Erika Burkhardt sold 1,269 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $149.37, for a total transaction of $189,550.53. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 64 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,559.68. The trade was a 95.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 32,112 shares of company stock worth $4,760,814. 0.33% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Yum! Brands

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of YUM. Syon Capital LLC lifted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 17.0% in the third quarter. Syon Capital LLC now owns 7,036 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,070,000 after acquiring an additional 1,023 shares during the last quarter. First National Bank of Omaha acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $617,000. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 4.1% in the 3rd quarter. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC now owns 4,204 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $639,000 after purchasing an additional 167 shares during the last quarter. NEOS Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Yum! Brands by 45.5% during the 3rd quarter. NEOS Investment Management LLC now owns 36,363 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $5,527,000 after purchasing an additional 11,376 shares during the period. Finally, Merit Financial Group LLC grew its stake in Yum! Brands by 6.3% during the 3rd quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 13,991 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,127,000 after buying an additional 834 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

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.