Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Receives $145.00 Consensus Price Target from Analysts

Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) has received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the fifteen brokerages that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and six have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $144.75.

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. Argus reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Citigroup lowered their price target on Yum! Brands from $166.00 to $162.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. 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. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of Yum! Brands from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $150.00 to $135.00 in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $141.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 9th.

Insider Activity

In other Yum! Brands news, VP David Eric Russell sold 9,919 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 $2,419,025.43. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,078 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.37, for a total transaction of $979,382.86. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 172,128 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,817,351.36. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, VP David Eric Russell sold 9,919 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.63, for a total transaction of $1,285,799.97. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly 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 24,064 shares of company stock worth $3,228,698 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Yum! Brands

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Yum! Brands by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 23,405,452 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $3,058,156,000 after buying an additional 373,232 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 4.9% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 14,650,728 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,914,257,000 after acquiring an additional 678,659 shares in the last quarter. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP grew its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP now owns 5,766,650 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $720,485,000 after acquiring an additional 210,238 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 3.9% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,278,341 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $409,596,000 after purchasing an additional 124,080 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter valued at $331,831,000. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Yum! Brands Trading Up 1.0 %

YUM stock opened at $143.18 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $138.15 and a 200-day simple moving average of $131.20. The company has a market capitalization of $40.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.61, a PEG ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 1.10. Yum! Brands has a twelve month low of $115.53 and a twelve month high of $143.24.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 7th. The restaurant operator reported $1.26 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by ($0.13). The company had revenue of $2.04 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.11 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 22.57% and a negative return on equity of 17.76%. The company’s revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.31 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Yum! Brands will post 5.73 EPS for the current year.

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.