13,459 Shares in Yum China Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:YUMC) Bought by AIA Group Ltd

AIA Group Ltd bought a new position in Yum China Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:YUMC) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 13,459 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $571,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. BlackRock Inc. grew its position in Yum China by 0.4% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 25,034,915 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,586,963,000 after acquiring an additional 106,182 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Yum China by 788.9% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,628,571 shares of the company’s stock valued at $787,029,000 after buying an additional 14,757,971 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its position in Yum China by 2.4% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 12,374,902 shares of the company’s stock valued at $689,530,000 after buying an additional 295,494 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its position in Yum China by 2.4% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,838,471 shares of the company’s stock valued at $491,770,000 after buying an additional 282,974 shares during the period. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted its holdings in shares of Yum China by 4.5% during the third quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 7,819,136 shares of the company’s stock worth $435,682,000 after purchasing an additional 337,033 shares during the period. 85.58% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on YUMC shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $38.00 target price (down from $65.00) on shares of Yum China in a report on Thursday, January 4th. HSBC dropped their target price on shares of Yum China from $66.80 to $51.30 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 6th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Yum China currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $54.65.

Yum China Stock Performance

Shares of YUMC opened at $37.09 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 1.24. Yum China Holdings, Inc. has a one year low of $33.55 and a one year high of $64.50. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $40.30 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $42.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.54 billion, a PE ratio of 18.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 0.45.

Yum China (NYSE:YUMC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 6th. The company reported $0.25 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.13 by $0.12. Yum China had a net margin of 7.53% and a return on equity of 11.63%. The business had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.32 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.13 earnings per share. Yum China’s quarterly revenue was up 19.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Yum China Holdings, Inc. will post 2.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum China Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 5th were issued a dividend of $0.16 per share. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.73%. This is a positive change from Yum China’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 4th. Yum China’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.65%.

Yum China Company Profile

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.