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

Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 6th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 21st will be given a dividend of 0.71 per share by the restaurant operator on Friday, March 7th. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.16%. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67.

Yum! Brands has increased its dividend by an average of 10.3% annually over the last three years. Yum! Brands has a payout ratio of 40.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Yum! Brands to earn $5.94 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.68 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 45.1%.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

NYSE:YUM opened at $131.35 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $36.66 billion, a PE ratio of 24.55, a PEG ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 1.11. Yum! Brands has a fifty-two week low of $122.13 and a fifty-two week high of $143.20. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $132.19 and its 200 day moving average is $133.65.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 analyst estimates of $1.90 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.44 earnings per share. Yum! Brands’s revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Yum! Brands will post 5.46 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on YUM shares. Loop Capital cut their target price on Yum! Brands from $143.00 to $140.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Argus upgraded shares of Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 price target for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 31st. Redburn Atlantic cut Yum! Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price objective 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, Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $141.00 target price (down from $153.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $144.61.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,059 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.94, for a total transaction of $959,600.46. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 149,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,307,396.90. The trade was a 4.51 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.31% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.