Yum China (NYSE:YUMC) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Strong Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of Yum China (NYSE:YUMC) have earned an average recommendation of “Strong Buy” from the four research firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $48.70.

Separately, Daiwa America raised shares of Yum China to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Yum China

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in YUMC. GeoWealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Yum China by 689.6% during the fourth quarter. GeoWealth Management LLC now owns 529 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 462 shares during the last quarter. Hughes Financial Services LLC bought a new position in Yum China during the first quarter valued at approximately $29,000. SouthState Corp lifted its position in Yum China by 4,915.4% during the first quarter. SouthState Corp now owns 652 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 639 shares during the period. CX Institutional bought a new position in Yum China in the first quarter worth approximately $37,000. Finally, Graney & King LLC bought a new position in Yum China in the fourth quarter worth approximately $39,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.58% of the company’s stock.

Yum China Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:YUMC opened at $44.46 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $16.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 0.28. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $43.98 and a 200-day moving average price of $46.59. The company has a current ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. Yum China has a 12 month low of $28.50 and a 12 month high of $53.99.

Yum China (NYSE:YUMC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The company reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.78 by ($0.01). Yum China had a net margin of 8.09% and a return on equity of 14.08%. The firm had revenue of $2.98 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.13 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.71 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Yum China will post 2.54 EPS for the current year.

Yum China Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 28th were issued a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.16%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 28th. Yum China’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 40.17%.

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.