KBC Group NV Lowers Stake in Yum China Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:YUMC)

KBC Group NV lessened its position in shares of Yum China Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:YUMC) by 17.3% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 310,533 shares of the company’s stock after selling 64,983 shares during the quarter. KBC Group NV’s holdings in Yum China were worth $13,980,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC grew its position in 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. LRI Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Yum China in the first quarter worth about $36,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its position 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 buying an additional 258 shares during the period. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Yum China in the first quarter worth about $39,000. Finally, McClarren Financial Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Yum China by 906.5% in the third quarter. McClarren Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 926 shares of the company’s stock worth $42,000 after buying an additional 834 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.58% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on YUMC shares. StockNews.com raised Yum China from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Yum China from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $35.50 to $60.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Macquarie raised Yum China from an “underperform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $30.00 to $37.40 in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Finally, Citigroup raised Yum China to a “strong-buy” rating in a report 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Yum China has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $51.68.

Yum China Trading Down 0.0 %

Shares of YUMC opened at $47.21 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $17.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.89, a P/E/G ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 0.36. Yum China Holdings, Inc. has a one year low of $28.50 and a one year high of $52.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.29. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $43.61 and a 200 day moving average price of $37.14.

Yum China (NYSE:YUMC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 4th. The company reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.68 by $0.09. Yum China had a return on equity of 13.39% and a net margin of 7.97%. The firm had revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.03 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.59 earnings per share. Yum China’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Yum China Holdings, Inc. will post 2.31 EPS 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. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 26th will be paid a dividend of $0.16 per share. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.36%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 26th. Yum China’s payout ratio is currently 28.32%.

Yum China Company Profile

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.