Yum! Brands’ (YUM) “Sector Perform” Rating Reaffirmed at Royal Bank Of Canada

Royal Bank Of Canada reissued their sector perform rating on shares of Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) in a research note published on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a $165.00 price target on the restaurant operator’s stock.

Several other research analysts have also issued reports on the stock. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $165.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $171.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, April 15th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $180.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed a “positive” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $174.50.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Shares of YUM stock opened at $161.78 on Monday. Yum! Brands has a 52-week low of $137.33 and a 52-week high of $169.39. The stock has a market cap of $44.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.15, a P/E/G ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.66. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $160.12 and a 200-day moving average of $153.85.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.76 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $2.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.45 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 22.42% and a net margin of 18.98%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.61 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Yum! Brands will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 6th. Investors of record on Friday, February 20th were paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 20th. This is a positive change from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is 54.05%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Aaron Powell sold 12,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $161.44, for a total transaction of $1,937,280.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 14,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,365,096. This trade represents a 45.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 284 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.02, for a total transaction of $47,149.68. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders have sold 14,138 shares of company stock worth $2,289,990. Company insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Yum! Brands

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in YUM. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter valued at $706,799,000. Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 20.0% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 19,419,826 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,938,139,000 after buying an additional 3,240,190 shares during the period. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter worth about $272,794,000. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 42.2% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,183,964 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $632,950,000 after buying an additional 1,240,777 shares during the period. Finally, Boston Partners bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter worth about $168,604,000. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Yum! Brands

Yum! Brands, Inc (NYSE: YUM) is a global quick-service restaurant company that develops, operates and franchises a portfolio of well-known restaurant brands. The company’s principal brands are KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, each focused on distinct product categories—KFC on fried chicken and related menu items, Pizza Hut on pizza and complementary offerings, and Taco Bell on Mexican-inspired quick-service food. Yum! is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky and was formed as Tricon Global Restaurants in 1997 when PepsiCo spun off its restaurant businesses, later adopting the Yum! Brands name.

The company’s operating model centers on brand development, system growth and franchising; a large portion of its restaurants are operated by independent franchisees, and Yum! generates revenue through franchise royalties and fees in addition to sales from company-operated locations.