Fernwood Investment Management LLC Sells 2,150 Shares of Yum China Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:YUMC)

Fernwood Investment Management LLC lessened its position in Yum China Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:YUMC) by 6.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 29,350 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,150 shares during the quarter. Fernwood Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Yum China were worth $1,245,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in Yum China by 237.1% in the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 559,994 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,203,000 after acquiring an additional 393,881 shares during the last quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC bought a new position in shares of Yum China during the fourth quarter valued at about $1,655,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its stake in shares of Yum China by 13.0% during the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 3,766,787 shares of the company’s stock valued at $159,825,000 after buying an additional 433,411 shares during the last quarter. XY Capital Ltd grew its stake in shares of Yum China by 1,325.8% during the third quarter. XY Capital Ltd now owns 107,650 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,998,000 after buying an additional 100,100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB grew its stake in shares of Yum China by 17.5% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 369,621 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,657,000 after buying an additional 54,958 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.58% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on YUMC. HSBC reduced their price objective on Yum China from $66.80 to $51.30 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $38.00 price objective (down from $65.00) on shares of Yum China in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $54.65.

Yum China Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of Yum China stock traded up $0.39 during trading on Monday, reaching $40.04. 3,743,798 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,452,327. The company has a quick ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $40.03 and its 200 day moving average is $41.72. The firm has a market cap of $15.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 0.45. Yum China Holdings, Inc. has a 1 year low of $33.55 and a 1 year high of $64.50.

Yum China (NYSE:YUMC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 6th. The company reported $0.25 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.13 by $0.12. Yum China had a net margin of 7.53% and a return on equity of 11.63%. The business had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.32 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.13 earnings per share. Yum China’s quarterly revenue was up 19.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Yum China Holdings, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum China Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 5th were issued a $0.16 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 4th. This is a positive change from Yum China’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.60%. Yum China’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 32.65%.

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.