Yum China Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:YUMC) Stake Lessened by Asset Management One Co. Ltd.

Asset Management One Co. Ltd. lowered its holdings in Yum China Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:YUMC) by 12.1% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 56,352 shares of the company’s stock after selling 7,725 shares during the period. Asset Management One Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Yum China were worth $2,383,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Yum China by 788.9% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,628,571 shares of the company’s stock worth $787,029,000 after acquiring an additional 14,757,971 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Yum China in the fourth quarter worth $294,441,000. Vontobel Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Yum China by 8,088.2% in the first quarter. Vontobel Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,212,482 shares of the company’s stock worth $214,452,000 after acquiring an additional 3,173,249 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE increased its stake in shares of Yum China by 21.2% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 5,759,174 shares of the company’s stock worth $365,074,000 after acquiring an additional 1,008,866 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group increased its stake in shares of Yum China by 23.3% in the third quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 4,847,238 shares of the company’s stock worth $270,088,000 after acquiring an additional 916,418 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.58% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft began coverage on shares of Yum China in a research note on Tuesday, December 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $58.00 price target on the stock. HSBC lowered their target price on shares of Yum China from $66.80 to $51.30 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $38.00 target price (down from $65.00) on shares of Yum China in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $54.65.

Yum China Trading Down 3.3 %

Yum China stock opened at $37.35 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 1.24. The company has a market capitalization of $14.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.05, a PEG ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 0.45. Yum China Holdings, Inc. has a one year low of $33.55 and a one year high of $64.65. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $40.40 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $43.06.

Yum China (NYSE:YUMC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The company reported $0.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.13 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.32 billion. Yum China had a return on equity of 11.63% and a net margin of 7.53%. The firm’s revenue was up 19.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.13 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Yum China Holdings, Inc. will post 2.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum China Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 5th were given a $0.16 dividend. This is an increase from Yum China’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.71%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 4th. Yum China’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 32.65%.

About Yum China

Yum China Holdings, Inc owns, operates, and franchises restaurants in the People's Republic of China. The company operates through KFC, Pizza Hut, and All Other segments. It operates restaurants under the KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Lavazza, Little Sheep, and Huang Ji Huang concepts. The company also operates V-Gold Mall, a mobile e-commerce platform to sell products; and offers online food deliver services.