Evercore ISI Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) Stock

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) had its price objective increased by research analysts at Evercore ISI from $160.00 to $170.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “in-line” rating on the restaurant operator’s stock. Evercore ISI’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 13.93% from the company’s previous close.

YUM has been the topic of several other reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $138.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. TD Securities reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $158.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Wednesday. TD Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $140.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Yum! Brands from $130.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Sixteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $156.20.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

NYSE YUM opened at $149.21 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $41.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.58, a PEG ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.90. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $151.79 and its 200 day moving average price is $140.99. Yum! Brands has a 1 year low of $122.13 and a 1 year high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.85 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.15 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Yum! Brands will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In related news, VP David Eric Russell sold 5,000 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.66, for a total transaction of $793,300.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 11,960 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,897,573.60. This trade represents a 29.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 30,604 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.46, for a total value of $4,880,113.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 160,296 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,560,800.16. The trade was a 16.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 55,271 shares of company stock worth $8,706,576. Corporate insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter valued at $418,692,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 14,795.6% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 769,805 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $121,137,000 after buying an additional 764,637 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 20.4% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,545,872 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $475,714,000 after acquiring an additional 601,361 shares during the last quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 31.7% during the fourth quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,880,379 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $252,272,000 after acquiring an additional 452,339 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $59,289,000. 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.