TD Securities Raises Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) Price Target to $151.00

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) had its price target lifted by research analysts at TD Securities from $140.00 to $151.00 in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “hold” rating on the restaurant operator’s stock. TD Securities’ price target would indicate a potential upside of 4.91% from the stock’s current price.

Other equities analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $141.00 target price (down previously from $153.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Sanford C. Bernstein cut shares of Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $140.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Bank of America decreased their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Fourteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $144.95.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

NYSE:YUM opened at $143.93 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $132.19 and its two-hundred day moving average is $133.65. The firm has a market cap of $40.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.90, a PEG ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 1.11. Yum! Brands has a one year low of $122.13 and a one year high of $144.43.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.37 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.41 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $1.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.90 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 18.93% and a net margin of 21.13%. Yum! Brands’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.44 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Yum! Brands will post 5.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,059 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 $20,307,396.90. This represents a 4.51 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.31% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Toronto Dominion Bank raised its position in Yum! Brands by 15.5% in the third quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 127,446 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $17,805,000 after purchasing an additional 17,133 shares during the period. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the 3rd quarter worth about $1,262,000. Forsta AP Fonden raised its holdings in Yum! Brands by 5.3% in the 4th quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 110,500 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $14,825,000 after buying an additional 5,600 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its position in Yum! Brands by 3.1% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 689,631 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $96,348,000 after buying an additional 20,966 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Infusive Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 15.1% during the third quarter. Infusive Asset Management Inc. now owns 43,419 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $6,066,000 after buying an additional 5,684 shares during the period. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Yum! Brands

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.