Yum China (NYSE:YUMC) Raised to Buy at StockNews.com

Yum China (NYSE:YUMC) was upgraded by investment analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued on Wednesday.

Several other research firms also recently issued reports on YUMC. Macquarie upgraded shares of Yum China from an “underperform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $30.00 to $37.40 in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Yum China from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $35.50 to $60.00 in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Citigroup upgraded shares of Yum China to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Yum China presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $51.68.

Yum China Price Performance

NYSE:YUMC traded up $1.47 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $49.82. 3,999,340 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,257,166. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.23. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $41.55 and its 200 day simple moving average is $36.65. Yum China has a 1 year low of $28.50 and a 1 year high of $51.68. The company has a market cap of $19.15 billion, a PE ratio of 22.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 0.36.

Yum China (NYSE:YUMC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 4th. The company reported $0.77 earnings per share 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 analyst estimates of $3.03 billion. Yum China had a net margin of 7.97% and a return on equity of 13.39%. The company’s revenue was up 5.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.59 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Yum China will post 2.23 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum China

In related news, CTO Leila Zhang purchased 4,000 shares of Yum China stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 15th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $33.36 per share, with a total value of $133,440.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer now directly owns 41,339 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,379,069.04. This trade represents a 0.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, CTO Leila Zhang purchased 4,000 shares of Yum China stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 15th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $33.36 per share, with a total value of $133,440.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer now directly owns 41,339 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,379,069.04. This trade represents a 0.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Warton Wang acquired 3,700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 16th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $34.67 per share, for a total transaction of $128,279.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 25,023 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $867,547.41. This represents a 0.00 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders bought 18,400 shares of company stock valued at $619,671. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Yum China

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Yum China by 43.9% in the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 846 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 258 shares during the last quarter. Industrial Alliance Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Yum China by 4.4% in the first quarter. Industrial Alliance Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,802 shares of the company’s stock worth $271,000 after purchasing an additional 286 shares during the period. Blair William & Co. IL lifted its position in Yum China by 1.2% in the second quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 25,639 shares of the company’s stock worth $791,000 after purchasing an additional 302 shares during the period. Carmichael Hill & Associates Inc. lifted its position in Yum China by 12.1% in the second quarter. Carmichael Hill & Associates Inc. now owns 3,338 shares of the company’s stock worth $103,000 after purchasing an additional 360 shares during the period. Finally, Eagle Bay Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Yum China by 53.7% during the second quarter. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC now owns 1,088 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 380 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.58% of the company’s stock.

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.