Yum China Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:YUMC) Receives Consensus Rating of “Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of Yum China Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:YUMC) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Buy” from the five brokerages that are covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $51.68.

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Yum China from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price 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 Wednesday, November 6th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Yum China to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Macquarie upgraded shares of Yum China from an “underperform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $30.00 to $37.40 in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Warton Wang purchased 3,700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 16th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $34.67 per share, for a total transaction of $128,279.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 25,023 shares in the company, valued at approximately $867,547.41. The trade was a 0.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In related news, Director Robert Blaine Aiken, Jr. purchased 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 16th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $33.74 per share, for a total transaction of $101,220.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 12,088 shares in the company, valued at approximately $407,849.12. The trade was a 0.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Warton Wang purchased 3,700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 16th. The shares were bought at an average price of $34.67 per share, with a total value of $128,279.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 25,023 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $867,547.41. The trade was a 0.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. lifted its stake in Yum China by 91.7% in the first quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 17,548 shares of the company’s stock worth $698,000 after acquiring an additional 8,394 shares during the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. lifted its stake in Yum China by 16.0% in the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 266,021 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,585,000 after acquiring an additional 36,660 shares during the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its stake in Yum China by 294.8% in the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 513,114 shares of the company’s stock worth $20,384,000 after acquiring an additional 383,160 shares during the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Yum China by 243.1% in the first quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 33,800 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,331,000 after acquiring an additional 23,950 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in Yum China by 17.5% in the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 262,854 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,459,000 after acquiring an additional 39,231 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.58% of the company’s stock.

Yum China Stock Performance

YUMC opened at $47.51 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. The company has a market cap of $18.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.02, a PEG ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 0.36. Yum China has a 52-week low of $28.50 and a 52-week high of $52.00. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $43.09 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $37.02.

Yum China (NYSE:YUMC) last issued its earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The company reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.68 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.03 billion. Yum China had a net margin of 7.97% and a return on equity of 13.39%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.59 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Yum China will post 2.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum China Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 26th will be given a dividend of $0.16 per share. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.35%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 26th. Yum China’s payout ratio is currently 28.32%.

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.