JPMorgan Chase & Co. Cuts Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) Price Target to $160.00

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) had its target price decreased by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $170.00 to $160.00 in a report released on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has an overweight rating on the restaurant operator’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also issued reports on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $174.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Friday, July 31st. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Tuesday, June 16th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $168.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Yum! Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $180.00 to $185.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $174.31.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 0.1%

NYSE:YUM opened at $152.22 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $153.73 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $156.47. Yum! Brands has a 52 week low of $137.33 and a 52 week high of $170.14. The stock has a market cap of $41.95 billion, a PE ratio of 19.15, a P/E/G ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 0.55.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.62 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.58 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $2.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.18 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 24.57% and a net margin of 25.42%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 12.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.44 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands will post 6.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 12th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 27th were given a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 27th. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is currently 37.74%.

Yum! Brands announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, June 16th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the restaurant operator to reacquire up to 9.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 268 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $153.15, for a total transaction of $41,044.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 483 shares in the company, valued at $73,971.45. This trade represents a 35.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 261 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction on Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $153.15, for a total transaction of $39,972.15. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 63,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,766,528.65. The trade was a 0.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 20,386 shares of company stock valued at $3,169,392 over the last quarter. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Yum! Brands

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in YUM. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter valued at about $706,799,000. Capital International Investors boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 20.0% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 19,419,826 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,938,139,000 after buying an additional 3,240,190 shares during the last quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter worth about $272,794,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands during the second quarter worth about $279,432,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in Yum! Brands by 42.2% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,183,964 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $632,950,000 after acquiring an additional 1,240,777 shares during the period. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Yum! Brands Company Profile

Yum! Brands, Inc (NYSE: YUM) is a global quick-service restaurant company that develops, operates and franchises a portfolio of well-known restaurant brands. The company’s principal brands are KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, each focused on distinct product categories—KFC on fried chicken and related menu items, Pizza Hut on pizza and complementary offerings, and Taco Bell on Mexican-inspired quick-service food. Yum! is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky and was formed as Tricon Global Restaurants in 1997 when PepsiCo spun off its restaurant businesses, later adopting the Yum! Brands name.

The company’s operating model centers on brand development, system growth and franchising; a large portion of its restaurants are operated by independent franchisees, and Yum! generates revenue through franchise royalties and fees in addition to sales from company-operated locations.