TD Cowen Reaffirms "Buy" Rating for Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM)

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "buy" rating reaffirmed by investment analysts at TD Cowen in a note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $160.00 price objective on the restaurant operator's stock. TD Cowen's price objective indicates a potential upside of 15.98% from the stock's previous close.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on YUM. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $141.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 9th. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a "hold" rating and set a $135.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Wells Fargo & Company cut Yum! Brands from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $150.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Guggenheim boosted their price target on Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised Yum! Brands from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $154.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 5th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $145.00.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

NYSE YUM traded up $0.94 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $137.96. 1,900,997 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,937,925. The stock has a market cap of $38.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $135.97 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $129.54. Yum! Brands has a 1 year low of $115.53 and a 1 year high of $143.24.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The restaurant operator reported $1.26 earnings per share 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.11 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.31 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Yum! Brands will post 5.72 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In related news, VP David Eric Russell sold 9,919 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 9th. The stock was 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 directly owns 18,661 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,419,025.43. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,067 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.34, for a total value of $963,514.78. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 175,377 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,910,900.18. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP David Eric Russell sold 9,919 shares of the 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 of the company's stock, valued at $2,419,025.43. 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 ninety days. Insiders own 0.31% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Yum! Brands

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter worth about $331,831,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 75,766.0% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,640,982 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $210,177,000 after acquiring an additional 1,638,819 shares during the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 121.8% during the third quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 1,819,809 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $227,367,000 after acquiring an additional 999,443 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 19.6% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 5,507,237 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $652,773,000 after acquiring an additional 901,181 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 27.3% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,257,809 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $417,260,000 after acquiring an additional 698,493 shares during the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.