Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.71

Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, May 15th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 27th will be paid a dividend of 0.71 per share by the restaurant operator on Friday, June 6th. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.93%.

Yum! Brands has raised its dividend by an average of 10.3% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 8 years. Yum! Brands has a payout ratio of 42.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Yum! Brands to earn $6.64 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.84 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 42.8%.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 1.3%

YUM opened at $147.00 on Friday. Yum! Brands has a twelve month low of $122.13 and a twelve month high of $163.30. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $149.93 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $141.82. The stock has a market cap of $40.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.16, a PEG ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.77.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.30 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.29 by $0.01. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 19.68% and a negative return on equity of 20.33%. The company had revenue of $1.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.85 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.15 EPS. Yum! Brands’s revenue was up 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 30,604 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $159.46, for a total value of $4,880,113.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 160,296 shares in the company, valued at $25,560,800.16. The trade was a 16.03% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP David Eric Russell sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.66, for a total transaction of $793,300.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 11,960 shares in the company, valued at $1,897,573.60. The trade was a 29.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 62,334 shares of company stock valued at $9,734,737. 0.33% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Yum! Brands

An institutional investor recently raised its position in Yum! Brands stock. Brighton Jones LLC increased its stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 8.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 7,861 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 583 shares during the quarter. Brighton Jones LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $1,055,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on YUM shares. Guggenheim lifted their price objective on Yum! Brands from $155.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $130.00 to $148.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $148.00 to $151.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $156.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on Yum! Brands from $163.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Sixteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $156.70.

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.