TD Cowen Lowers Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) Price Target to $156.00

Key Points

• TD Cowen has revised its price target for Yum! Brands from $158.00 to $156.00, maintaining a "hold" rating, which suggests a potential upside of 11.67% from the previous close.
• Goldman Sachs upgraded Yum! Brands to a "buy" rating with a target price of $167.00, alongside several other firms issuing varying ratings and price targets for the stock.
• Yum! Brands reported earnings per share of $1.44, missing estimates and reflecting a 9.6% year-over-year revenue increase despite a decline in net margin.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) had its price objective cut by investment analysts at TD Cowen from $158.00 to $156.00 in a note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a "hold" rating on the restaurant operator's stock. TD Cowen's target price suggests a potential upside of 10.37% from the company's previous close.

YUM has been the topic of several other reports. Redburn Atlantic upgraded shares of Yum! Brands from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $145.00 to $177.00 in a research report on Tuesday, June 10th. Barclays reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $164.00 target price (down previously from $167.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Tuesday. Citigroup lifted their price target on Yum! Brands from $148.00 to $151.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Guggenheim reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $167.00 price objective (up from $165.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their target price on Yum! Brands from $150.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $161.23.

Yum! Brands Trading Down 0.9%

YUM traded down $1.22 on Tuesday, reaching $141.34. The company had a trading volume of 2,263,240 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,065,120. The company has a market capitalization of $39.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.88, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a fifty day moving average of $145.49 and a 200-day moving average of $146.84. Yum! Brands has a one year low of $122.13 and a one year high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last posted 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). Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 21.01% and a net margin of 18.11%. The firm had revenue of $1.93 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.94 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.35 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Yum! Brands will post 5.94 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,117 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 15th. The stock was 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 263 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $139.92, for a total value of $36,798.96. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,755 shares of the company's stock, valued at $245,559.60. The trade was a 13.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 14,983 shares of company stock worth $2,187,764 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.33% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in YUM. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 14,795.6% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 769,805 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $121,137,000 after acquiring an additional 764,637 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Yum! Brands in the 1st quarter worth approximately $97,453,000. Magellan Asset Management Ltd lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 35.9% during the second quarter. Magellan Asset Management Ltd now owns 2,306,932 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $341,841,000 after purchasing an additional 609,223 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 20.4% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,545,872 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $475,714,000 after buying an additional 601,361 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 1.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 34,109,219 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $5,367,427,000 after purchasing an additional 483,918 shares during the last quarter. 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.