TD Cowen Reiterates Hold Rating for Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM)

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM)‘s stock had its “hold” rating reaffirmed by TD Cowen in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $140.00 price target on the restaurant operator’s stock. TD Cowen’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 6.58% from the stock’s current price.

YUM has been the subject of a number of other reports. Argus raised Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 31st. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $140.00 price target (down from $158.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $140.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Redburn Atlantic downgraded shares of Yum! Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $144.61.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

NYSE:YUM opened at $131.35 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $36.66 billion, a PE ratio of 24.55, a P/E/G ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 1.11. Yum! Brands has a fifty-two week low of $122.13 and a fifty-two week high of $143.20. The company has a fifty day moving average of $132.35 and a two-hundred day moving average of $133.67.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The restaurant operator reported $1.61 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.01. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 21.13% and a negative return on equity of 18.93%. Research analysts forecast that Yum! Brands will post 5.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,059 shares of the business’s 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 149,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,307,396.90. The trade was a 4.51 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Yum! Brands

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Yum! Brands by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,441,170 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,038,775,000 after buying an additional 111,147 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,355,367 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $315,996,000 after purchasing an additional 94,026 shares during the period. Cantillon Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 31.7% during the fourth quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,880,379 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $252,272,000 after buying an additional 452,339 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,632,862 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $228,127,000 after purchasing an additional 6,537 shares during the period. Finally, Swiss National Bank lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 0.3% in the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 835,800 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $116,770,000 after purchasing an additional 2,800 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Company Profile

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.