Yum China Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:YUMC) to Issue Dividend Increase – $0.24 Per Share

Yum China Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:YUMC) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, February 7th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 6th will be paid a dividend of 0.24 per share on Thursday, March 27th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.99%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 6th. This is a positive change from Yum China’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.16.

Yum China has increased its dividend by an average of 10.1% per year over the last three years. Yum China has a payout ratio of 22.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Yum China to earn $2.55 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.64 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 25.1%.

Yum China Price Performance

Yum China stock traded down $1.38 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $48.27. The company had a trading volume of 2,209,781 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,198,052. Yum China has a 1 year low of $28.50 and a 1 year high of $52.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 1.29 and a quick ratio of 1.15. The company has a market capitalization of $18.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 0.33. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $46.80 and its 200-day simple moving average is $42.22.

Yum China (NYSE:YUMC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported $0.30 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.31 by ($0.01). Yum China had a net margin of 7.97% and a return on equity of 13.39%. On average, equities analysts predict that Yum China will post 2.31 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently commented on YUMC shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Yum China from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the company from $35.50 to $60.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Yum China from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 1st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Yum China presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $49.57.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Yum China news, insider Duoduo (Howard) Huang sold 6,377 shares of Yum China stock in a transaction on Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $47.47, for a total value of $302,716.19. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 16,641 shares in the company, valued at $789,948.27. This trade represents a 27.70 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.