Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) Earns Overweight Rating from Barclays

Key Points

• Barclays has lowered its price target for Yum! Brands from $167.00 to $164.00, maintaining an "overweight" rating which indicates a potential upside of 17.39% based on the stock's previous close.
• Despite the price reduction from Barclays, other analysts have raised their ratings, with Redburn Atlantic increasing its target to $177.00, reflecting positive sentiment among several investment firms.
• Yum! Brands' stock has recently experienced a trading decline of 5.0%, impacting its current value and stimulating discussions on overall market performance and analyst outlooks.

Barclays reissued their overweight rating on shares of Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) in a research report report published on Tuesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. They currently have a $164.00 price target on the restaurant operator's stock, down from their prior price target of $167.00.

YUM has been the topic of several other reports. Oppenheimer reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $185.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, April 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Yum! Brands from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $167.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Wednesday, June 4th. Melius initiated coverage on Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, July 14th. They set a "buy" rating and a $200.00 target price for the company. Redburn Atlantic raised shares of Yum! Brands from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their price target for the company from $145.00 to $177.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $151.00 to $153.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Monday, July 14th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $161.23.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 0.1%

Shares of YUM stock traded down $0.20 on Tuesday, hitting $142.36. The company had a trading volume of 659,524 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,149,679. The firm has a market cap of $39.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.73. Yum! Brands has a twelve month low of $122.13 and a twelve month high of $163.30. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $145.54 and a 200-day moving average price of $146.73.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.44 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.46 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $1.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.94 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 21.01% and a net margin of 18.11%. Yum! Brands's revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.35 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Yum! Brands will post 5.94 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 6th. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 27th were issued a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 27th. Yum! Brands's payout ratio is 56.02%.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In related news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 272 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $148.28, for a total transaction of $40,332.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,755 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $260,231.40. This trade represents a 13.42% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,117 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.60, for a total value of $1,043,352.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 102,893 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,084,113.80. The trade was a 6.47% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 14,983 shares of company stock worth $2,187,764 in the last ninety days. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 1.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 34,109,219 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $5,367,427,000 after acquiring an additional 483,918 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.7% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,216,042 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $1,217,826,000 after purchasing an additional 218,046 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 20.4% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,545,872 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $475,714,000 after purchasing an additional 601,361 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.0% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Magellan Asset Management Ltd increased its stake in Yum! Brands by 35.9% during the 2nd quarter. Magellan Asset Management Ltd now owns 2,306,932 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $341,841,000 after buying an additional 609,223 shares during the period. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.