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

Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, May 15th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 28th will be given a dividend of 0.67 per share by the restaurant operator on Friday, June 7th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.93%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 24th.

Yum! Brands has increased its dividend payment by an average of 8.8% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 7 consecutive years. Yum! Brands has a payout ratio of 42.0% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Yum! Brands to earn $6.33 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 42.3%.

Yum! Brands Trading Down 0.1 %

Yum! Brands stock opened at $139.15 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $39.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.67, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.07. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $138.03 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $133.21. Yum! Brands has a 52 week low of $115.53 and a 52 week high of $143.20.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The restaurant operator reported $1.15 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.20 by ($0.05). The company had revenue of $1.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.71 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 22.92% and a negative return on equity of 18.64%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.06 EPS. Research analysts expect that Yum! Brands will post 5.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, insider Scott Catlett sold 5,994 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $141.50, for a total value of $848,151.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 34,889 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,936,793.50. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,078 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.37, for a total transaction of $979,382.86. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 172,128 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,817,351.36. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Scott Catlett sold 5,994 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.50, for a total value of $848,151.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 34,889 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,936,793.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 33,521 shares of company stock valued at $4,620,263 in the last 90 days. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Yum! Brands declared that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, May 15th that authorizes the company to buyback $2.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the restaurant operator to reacquire up to 5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on YUM shares. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $144.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $166.00 to $162.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $141.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $134.00 to $132.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Argus reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $143.53.

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.