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

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) had its target price raised by investment analysts at Piper Sandler from $150.00 to $155.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “neutral” rating on the restaurant operator’s stock. Piper Sandler’s price target points to a potential upside of 3.88% from the company’s previous close.

Several other research firms also recently commented on YUM. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $156.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $165.00 to $163.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $148.00 to $151.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on Yum! Brands from $176.00 to $174.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 7th. Finally, Guggenheim increased their target price on Yum! Brands from $155.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Sixteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $156.20.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:YUM opened at $149.21 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $151.79 and a 200 day moving average of $140.99. Yum! Brands has a 52-week low of $122.13 and a 52-week high of $163.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $41.55 billion, a PE ratio of 28.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.90.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.30 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.29 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $1.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.85 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 20.33% and a net margin of 19.68%. The company’s revenue was up 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.15 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Yum! Brands will post 5.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 5,139 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.70, for a total value of $753,891.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 157,893 shares in the company, valued at $23,162,903.10. This trade represents a 3.15 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Erika Burkhardt sold 597 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.07, for a total transaction of $94,964.79. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 64 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,180.48. This trade 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 worth $8,706,576 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Yum! Brands

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in YUM. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,604,632 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,021,194,000 after purchasing an additional 163,462 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 20.4% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,545,872 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $475,714,000 after purchasing an additional 601,361 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter worth about $418,692,000. FMR LLC grew its position in Yum! Brands by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,521,583 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $338,296,000 after purchasing an additional 24,681 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in Yum! Brands by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,355,367 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $315,996,000 after purchasing an additional 94,026 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.