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

Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, November 21st,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd will be paid a dividend of 0.67 per share by the restaurant operator on Friday, December 13th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.98%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 2nd.

Yum! Brands has increased its dividend by an average of 8.8% annually over the last three years. Yum! Brands has a payout ratio of 44.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Yum! Brands to earn $6.02 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 44.5%.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Yum! Brands stock traded up $1.03 during trading on Friday, reaching $135.26. 992,477 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,936,092. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $134.42 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $134.50. The company has a market capitalization of $37.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.22, a PEG ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 1.10. Yum! Brands has a 52-week low of $123.70 and a 52-week high of $143.20.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its earnings results 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 analysts’ expectations 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.44 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Yum! Brands will post 5.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on YUM. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price objective on Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on Yum! Brands from $150.00 to $154.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Yum! Brands from $137.00 to $144.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Loop Capital decreased their target price on Yum! Brands from $143.00 to $140.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Bank of America lowered their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $145.94.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,059 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $135.94, for a total transaction of $959,600.46. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,307,396.90. This trade represents a 4.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In the last three months, insiders sold 21,069 shares of company stock valued at $2,842,965. Insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

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.