Analysts Set Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Price Target at $145.00

Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) has been given an average rating of "Hold" by the fourteen ratings firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $145.00.

Several research firms have recently weighed in on YUM. Oppenheimer upgraded Yum! Brands from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $154.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 5th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $141.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 9th. Citigroup upped their price objective on Yum! Brands from $164.00 to $166.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, February 8th. Barclays reduced their price objective on Yum! Brands from $146.00 to $144.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 8th. Finally, Guggenheim upped their price objective on Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th.

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

In related news, VP David Eric Russell sold 9,919 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.63, for a total value of $1,285,799.97. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 18,661 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,419,025.43. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other Yum! Brands news, VP David Eric Russell sold 9,919 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.63, for a total transaction of $1,285,799.97. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 18,661 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,419,025.43. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,067 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.34, for a total value of $963,514.78. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 175,377 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $23,910,900.18. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 20,742 shares of company stock worth $2,734,628 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.31% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Yum! Brands

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. BlackRock Inc. lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 16.8% in the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 24,692,484 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $3,421,144,000 after purchasing an additional 3,549,709 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter valued at about $331,831,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 75,766.0% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,640,982 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $210,177,000 after purchasing an additional 1,638,819 shares during the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 121.8% in the 3rd quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 1,819,809 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $227,367,000 after purchasing an additional 999,443 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 19.6% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 5,507,237 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $652,773,000 after purchasing an additional 901,181 shares during the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Shares of Yum! Brands stock traded up $1.33 during trading on Friday, reaching $138.65. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,770,860 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,114,206. Yum! Brands has a one year low of $115.53 and a one year high of $143.24. The firm has a market cap of $39.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 1.10. The business's fifty day moving average price is $134.62 and its 200-day moving average price is $128.87.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The restaurant operator reported $1.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.39 by ($0.13). Yum! Brands had a net margin of 22.57% and a negative return on equity of 17.76%. The firm had revenue of $2.04 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.11 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.31 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands will post 5.72 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 8th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 21st were given a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 20th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.93%. This is a boost from Yum! Brands's previous quarterly dividend of $0.61. Yum! Brands's dividend payout ratio is currently 47.94%.

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.