Morgan Stanley Issues Positive Forecast for Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) Stock Price

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) had its price objective upped by equities researchers at Morgan Stanley from $151.00 to $153.00 in a research note issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an "equal weight" rating on the restaurant operator's stock. Morgan Stanley's price objective suggests a potential upside of 2.82% from the company's previous close.

Several other analysts have also recently issued reports on YUM. Redburn Atlantic raised shares of Yum! Brands from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $145.00 to $177.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 10th. TD Securities reaffirmed a "hold" rating and set a $158.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $148.00 to $151.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $185.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Robert W. Baird decreased 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 report on Monday, April 7th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $159.86.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

NYSE:YUM traded down $0.99 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $148.80. The stock had a trading volume of 390,791 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,990,062. The firm has a market capitalization of $41.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.65, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.74. Yum! Brands has a twelve month low of $122.13 and a twelve month high of $163.30. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $145.88 and a 200 day simple moving average of $144.77.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.30 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.29 by $0.01. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 18.42% and a negative return on equity of 20.80%. The firm had revenue of $1.79 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.85 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.15 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Yum! Brands will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,063 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $145.57, for a total value of $1,028,160.91. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 157,893 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,984,484.01. This represents a 4.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 272 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $148.28, for a total transaction of $40,332.16. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,755 shares of the company's stock, valued at $260,231.40. This represents a 13.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 12,742 shares of company stock worth $1,861,504. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of YUM. OLD Point Trust & Financial Services N A raised its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. OLD Point Trust & Financial Services N A now owns 15,357 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $2,060,000 after buying an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC raised its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 6,605 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $886,000 after buying an additional 71 shares during the last quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 78.0% during the first quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 162 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 71 shares during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 7.3% during the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,048 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $165,000 after buying an additional 71 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Valeo Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 0.8% during the first quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC now owns 9,178 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $1,444,000 after buying an additional 72 shares during the last quarter. 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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.