Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) to Issue Dividend Increase – $0.71 Per Share

Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 6th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, February 21st will be paid a dividend of 0.71 per share by the restaurant operator on Friday, March 7th. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.97%. This is an increase from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67.

Yum! Brands has raised its dividend payment by an average of 10.3% per year over the last three years. Yum! Brands has a payout ratio of 42.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Yum! Brands to earn $5.94 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 47.8%.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

YUM opened at $143.93 on Friday. Yum! Brands has a fifty-two week low of $122.13 and a fifty-two week high of $144.43. The company has a fifty day moving average of $132.19 and a two-hundred day moving average of $133.65. The stock has a market capitalization 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 (NYSE:YUM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.37 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.41 by ($0.04). Yum! Brands had a net margin of 21.13% and a negative return on equity of 18.93%. The firm had revenue of $1.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.90 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.44 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Yum! Brands will post 5.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have weighed in on YUM shares. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $140.00 price objective (down previously from $158.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered shares of Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $140.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. TD Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $140.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Argus upgraded shares of Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 31st. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $144.61.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.06, for a total value of $522,883.90. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,474,708.10. The trade was a 2.49 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.