Vontobel Holding Ltd. Cuts Position in Yum China $YUMC

Vontobel Holding Ltd. lessened its stake in Yum China (NYSE:YUMC) by 5.4% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,357,309 shares of the company’s stock after selling 77,789 shares during the quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. owned 0.37% of Yum China worth $60,685,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of Yum China by 29.7% in the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 23,985,966 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,248,709,000 after purchasing an additional 5,485,735 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in shares of Yum China by 9.0% in the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,076,822 shares of the company’s stock valued at $108,119,000 after purchasing an additional 171,643 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in Yum China by 4,967.3% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 98,914 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,149,000 after acquiring an additional 96,962 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in Yum China by 35.6% in the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 14,102,077 shares of the company’s stock valued at $734,150,000 after acquiring an additional 3,704,756 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Soros Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Yum China in the 1st quarter valued at about $14,681,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.58% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Yum China in a research note on Wednesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has given a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Yum China presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $60.00.

Yum China Price Performance

Shares of NYSE YUMC opened at $42.39 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $15.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.52, a PEG ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 0.18. Yum China has a 52 week low of $41.00 and a 52 week high of $53.99. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $44.35 and its 200 day moving average price is $45.22. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01.

Yum China (NYSE:YUMC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.01. Yum China had a net margin of 8.04% and a return on equity of 14.13%. The company had revenue of $2.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.80 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.55 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Yum China will post 2.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum China Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 23rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 2nd were paid a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 2nd. Yum China’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 39.67%.

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.