Yum! Brands (YUM) Stock Price, News & Analysis

Company Overview

Yum! Brands, Inc. is a global restaurant company that develops, operates, and franchises quick-service restaurants. Its portfolio includes KFC, which specializes in fried and cooked chicken; Taco Bell, known for Mexican-inspired food; Pizza Hut, which offers pizza and related products; and The Habit Burger Grill, a fast-casual chain focused on chargrilled burgers, sandwiches, salads, and shakes.

The company primarily uses a franchised business model, working with franchisees and licensees to operate restaurants in more than 150 countries and territories. Its restaurants serve a broad range of menu items tailored to local tastes, while the company supports its brands through restaurant development, marketing, technology, supply-chain management, and operational systems.

Yum! Brands was formed in 1997 when it was spun off from PepsiCo. The company is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky. The Habit Burger Grill became part of Yum! Brands in 2020, expanding the company’s presence in the fast-casual restaurant segment. Yum! Brands is led by Chief Executive Officer David Gibbs.

Key Stats

• Today's Range: $143.94 to $145.62
• 50-Day Range: $135.98 to $157.42
• 52-Week Range: $134.26 to $170.14
• Volume: 382,221 shs
• Average Volume: 2.15 million shs
• Market Capitalization: $39.78 billion
• P/E Ratio: 18.34
• Dividend Yield: 2.06%
• Price Target: $172.56
• Consensus Rating: Moderate Buy

Yum! Brands Stock Analysis - MarketRank™

Yum! Brands scored higher than 92% of companies evaluated by MarketBeat, and ranked 94th out of 484 stocks in the consumer discretionary sector. Scores are calculated by averaging available category scores, with extra weight given to analysis and valuation.

Analyst's Opinion

• Score: 3.8 / 5
• Analyst Rating: Moderate Buy

Consensus Rating

Yum! Brands has received a consensus rating of Moderate Buy. The company's average rating score is 2.62, and is based on no strong buy ratings, 13 buy ratings, 8 hold ratings, and no sell ratings.

Upside Potential

Yum! Brands has a consensus price target of $172.56, representing about 18.7% upside from its current price of $145.36.

Amount of Analyst Coverage

Yum! Brands has been the subject of 10 research reports in the past 90 days, demonstrating strong analyst interest in this stock.

Earnings and Valuation

• Score: 2.5 / 5
• Proj. Earnings Growth: 7.74%

Earnings Growth

Earnings for Yum! Brands are expected to grow by 7.74% in the coming year, from $6.46 to $6.96 per share.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. the Market

The P/E ratio of Yum! Brands is 18.28, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the market average P/E ratio of about 38.98.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. Sector

The P/E ratio of Yum! Brands is 18.28, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the Consumer Discretionary sector average P/E ratio of about 45.02.

Price to Earnings Growth Ratio

Yum! Brands has a PEG Ratio of 2.31. PEG Ratios above 1 indicate that a company could be overvalued.

Short Interest

• Score: 2.0 / 5
• Short Interest Level: Bearish

Percentage of Shares Shorted

4.55% of the float of Yum! Brands has been sold short.

Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

Yum! Brands has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 4.97.

Change versus previous month

Short interest in Yum! Brands has recently increased by 25.98%, indicating that investor sentiment is decreasing significantly.

Dividend

• Score: 3.3 / 5
• Dividend Strength: Strong

Dividend Yield

Yum! Brands pays a meaningful dividend of 2.10%, higher than the bottom 25% of all stocks that pay dividends.

Dividend Growth

Yum! Brands has been increasing its dividend for 8 years.

Dividend Coverage

The dividend payout ratio of Yum! Brands is 37.74%. This payout ratio is at a healthy, sustainable level, below 75%.

Dividend Sustainability

Based on earnings estimates, Yum! Brands will have a dividend payout ratio of 43.10% next year. This indicates that Yum! Brands will be able to sustain or increase its dividend.

News and Social Media

• Score: 3.3 / 5
• News Sentiment: 0.25

News Sentiment

Yum! Brands has a news sentiment score of 0.25. This score is calculated as an average of sentiment of articles about the company over the last seven days and ranges from 2 (good news) to -2 (bad news). This is a lower news sentiment than the 0.53 average news sentiment score of Consumer Discretionary companies.

News Coverage This Week

MarketBeat has tracked 21 news articles for Yum! Brands this week, compared to 9 articles on an average week.

Search Interest

44 people have searched for YUM on MarketBeat in the last 30 days. This is an increase of 26% compared to the previous 30 days.

MarketBeat Follows

8 people have added Yum! Brands to their MarketBeat watchlist in the last 30 days. This is an increase of 300% compared to the previous 30 days.

Company Ownership

• Score: 1.4 / 5
• Insider Trading: Selling Shares

Insider Buying vs. Insider Selling

In the past three months, Yum! Brands insiders have sold more of their company's stock than they have bought. Specifically, they have bought $0.00 in company stock and sold $1,966,393.00 in company stock.

Percentage Held by Insiders

0.14% of the stock of Yum! Brands is held by insiders.

Percentage Held by Institutions

82.37% of the stock of Yum! Brands is held by institutions. High institutional ownership can be a signal of strong market trust in this company.

Company Calendar

• Last Earnings: 7/30/2026
• Record date for 9/18 Dividend: 9/09/2026
• Ex-Dividend for 9/18 Dividend: 9/09/2026
• Dividend Payable: 9/18/2026
• Today: 10/12/2026
• Next Earnings (Estimated): 11/03/2026
• Fiscal Year End: 12/31/2026

Industry, Sector and Symbol

• Stock Exchange: NYSE
• Sector: Consumer Discretionary
• Industry: Hotels, Restaurants & Leisure
• Sub-Industry: Restaurants
• Current Symbol: NYSE:YUM
• CIK: 1041061
• Web: www.yum.com
• Phone: (502) 874-8300
• Fax: 502-874-8323
• Employees: 49,000
• Year Founded: 1997

Price Target and Rating

• Average Price Target for Yum! Brands: $172.56
• High Price Target: $190.00
• Low Price Target: $150.00
• Potential Upside/Downside: +18.7%
• Consensus Rating: Moderate Buy
• Rating Score (0-4): 2.62
• Research Coverage: 21 Analysts

Profitability

• EPS (Trailing Twelve Months): $7.95
• Trailing P/E Ratio: 18.29
• Forward P/E Ratio: 22.51
• P/E Growth: 2.31
• Net Income: $1.56 billion
• Net Margins: 25.42%
• Pretax Margin: 25.20%
• Return on Equity: -24.57%
• Return on Assets: 22.24%

Debt

• Debt-to-Equity Ratio: N/A
• Current Ratio: 0.59
• Quick Ratio: 0.59

Sales & Book Value

• Annual Sales: $8.72 billion
• Price / Sales: 4.55
• Cash Flow: $6.89 per share
• Price / Cash Flow: 21.10
• Book Value: ($26.38) per share
• Price / Book: -5.51

Miscellaneous

• Outstanding Shares: 272,901,000
• Free Float: 272,519,000
• Market Cap: $39.69 billion
• Optionable: Optionable
• Beta: 0.55