Yum! Brands’ (YUM) Equal Weight Rating Reiterated at Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley reissued their equal weight rating on shares of Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) in a report issued on Tuesday, MarketBeat reports. Morgan Stanley currently has a $140.00 price target on the restaurant operator’s stock, down from their prior price target of $158.00.

YUM has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating and set a $141.00 price target (down previously from $153.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Bank of America cut their price objective on Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Loop Capital dropped their price target on Yum! Brands from $143.00 to $140.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. TD Cowen reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $145.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price objective on Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $144.89.

Yum! Brands Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of YUM opened at $127.07 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $133.26 and a 200 day moving average of $133.55. Yum! Brands has a 12 month low of $122.13 and a 12 month high of $143.20. The company has a market capitalization of $35.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.75, a PEG ratio of 2.00 and a beta of 1.11.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.37 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.41 by ($0.04). Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 18.93% and a net margin of 21.13%. The company had revenue of $1.83 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.90 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.44 earnings per share. Yum! Brands’s revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Yum! Brands will post 5.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd were issued a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.11%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 2nd. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 50.09%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,059 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.94, for a total value of $959,600.46. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 149,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,307,396.90. This trade represents a 4.51 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in YUM. Caprock Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 21.7% in the 4th quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 3,140 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $421,000 after purchasing an additional 559 shares in the last quarter. AA Financial Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 28.7% during the 4th quarter. AA Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,971 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $264,000 after buying an additional 439 shares during the last quarter. Hunter Associates Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 6.9% during the 4th quarter. Hunter Associates Investment Management LLC now owns 2,150 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $290,000 after buying an additional 138 shares during the last quarter. Crews Bank & Trust purchased a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter valued at about $100,000. Finally, Swedbank AB increased its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 154,104 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $20,675,000 after purchasing an additional 673 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

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.