Insider Selling: Yum China Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:YUMC) CTO Sells 4,000 Shares of Stock

Yum China Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:YUMC) CTO Leila Zhang sold 4,000 shares of Yum China stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.59, for a total value of $202,360.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 52,075 shares in the company, valued at $2,634,474.25. This represents a 7.13 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

Yum China Stock Up 3.9 %

Shares of NYSE:YUMC traded up $1.93 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $51.02. The company had a trading volume of 705,546 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,574,937. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $46.79 and its 200 day moving average price is $45.12. Yum China Holdings, Inc. has a 1-year low of $28.50 and a 1-year high of $52.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. The stock has a market cap of $19.19 billion, a PE ratio of 21.88, a P/E/G ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 0.35.

Yum China (NYSE:YUMC) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported $0.30 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.31 by ($0.01). Yum China had a net margin of 8.06% and a return on equity of 13.83%. Research analysts forecast that Yum China Holdings, Inc. will post 2.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum China Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 6th will be issued a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.88%. This is a boost from Yum China’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.16. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 6th. Yum China’s dividend payout ratio is presently 41.20%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Yum China

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its position in Yum China by 43.9% during the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 846 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 258 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Yum China by 49.6% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 7,865,803 shares of the company’s stock worth $356,206,000 after purchasing an additional 2,609,494 shares in the last quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. bought a new stake in Yum China during the third quarter worth about $296,000. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in Yum China by 19.9% during the third quarter. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 9,909 shares of the company’s stock worth $446,000 after buying an additional 1,642 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Euro Pacific Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Yum China in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $1,650,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.58% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, StockNews.com downgraded Yum China from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 25th.

About Yum China

Yum China Holdings, Inc owns, operates, and franchises restaurants in the People's Republic of China. The company operates through KFC, Pizza Hut, and All Other segments. It operates restaurants under the KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Lavazza, Little Sheep, and Huang Ji Huang concepts. The company also operates V-Gold Mall, a mobile e-commerce platform to sell products; and offers online food deliver services.