Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.67

Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, August 15th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 27th will be paid a dividend of 0.67 per share by the restaurant operator on Friday, September 6th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.98%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 27th.

Yum! Brands has increased its dividend payment by an average of 8.8% per year over the last three years. Yum! Brands has a payout ratio of 42.5% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Yum! Brands to earn $6.24 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.68 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 42.9%.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Shares of Yum! Brands stock opened at $135.52 on Monday. Yum! Brands has a twelve month low of $115.53 and a twelve month high of $143.20. The firm has a market cap of $38.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.07. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $132.49 and its 200-day simple moving average is $135.79.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The restaurant operator reported $1.35 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.33 by $0.02. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 18.90% and a net margin of 21.96%. The company had revenue of $1.76 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.80 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.41 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Yum! Brands will post 5.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $155.00 to $153.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday, June 13th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $150.00 price objective on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on Yum! Brands from $143.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $144.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, Evercore ISI cut Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to an “inline” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $160.00 to $145.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $145.00.

Insider Activity

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,061 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.43, for a total value of $963,332.23. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 165,630 shares in the company, valued at $22,596,900.90. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,061 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.43, for a total transaction of $963,332.23. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 165,630 shares in the company, valued at $22,596,900.90. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 6,961 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $131.02, for a total transaction of $912,030.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 162,381 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,275,158.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 101,685 shares of company stock valued at $13,910,094 in the last ninety days. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Yum! Brands declared that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, May 15th that permits the company to repurchase $2.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the restaurant operator to purchase up to 5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.