Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Barclays Analyst Says

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) had its price objective upped by analysts at Barclays from $163.00 to $167.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “overweight” rating on the restaurant operator’s stock. Barclays‘s target price suggests a potential upside of 11.92% from the stock’s current price.

Several other analysts also recently weighed in on YUM. Evercore ISI raised their target price on Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Thursday. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $151.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday. Guggenheim increased their target price on Yum! Brands from $155.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $176.00 to $174.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein lowered shares of Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $140.00 to $135.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Sixteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $156.20.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of NYSE YUM opened at $149.21 on Thursday. Yum! Brands has a 1-year low of $122.13 and a 1-year high of $163.30. The company has a market capitalization 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 business has a 50-day moving average of $151.79 and a 200-day moving average of $140.99.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 30,604 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.46, for a total transaction of $4,880,113.84. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 160,296 shares in the company, valued at $25,560,800.16. The trade was a 16.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Erika Burkhardt sold 597 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $159.07, for a total transaction of $94,964.79. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 64 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,180.48. This represents a 90.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 55,271 shares of company stock valued at $8,706,576 in the last three months. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Yum! Brands

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of YUM. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter worth $25,000. Wayfinding Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the 1st quarter worth $32,000. Financial Gravity Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the first quarter worth $38,000. Finally, Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter valued at $33,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Company Profile

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.