Salem Investment Counselors Inc. Has $684,000 Stake in Yum China Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:YUMC)

Salem Investment Counselors Inc. trimmed its stake in Yum China Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:YUMC) by 12.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 14,201 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,110 shares during the quarter. Salem Investment Counselors Inc.’s holdings in Yum China were worth $684,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. FMR LLC lifted its position in Yum China by 4,176.5% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,588,977 shares of the company’s stock worth $161,576,000 after buying an additional 3,505,053 shares in the last quarter. Waverton Investment Management Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Yum China by 350.7% during the third quarter. Waverton Investment Management Ltd now owns 4,203,087 shares of the company’s stock worth $189,202,000 after acquiring an additional 3,270,560 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in Yum China by 49.6% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 7,865,803 shares of the company’s stock valued at $356,206,000 after purchasing an additional 2,609,494 shares during the last quarter. Mondrian Investment Partners LTD grew its stake in Yum China by 56.3% in the second quarter. Mondrian Investment Partners LTD now owns 4,394,628 shares of the company’s stock valued at $133,203,000 after purchasing an additional 1,582,859 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its position in Yum China by 171.7% in the 2nd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 2,069,134 shares of the company’s stock worth $63,812,000 after purchasing an additional 1,307,574 shares during the last quarter. 85.58% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on YUMC. Citigroup upgraded Yum China to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Yum China from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, December 21st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Yum China from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $35.50 to $60.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Yum China has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $49.57.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum China

In other news, insider Duoduo (Howard) Huang sold 6,377 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $47.47, for a total value of $302,716.19. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 16,641 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $789,948.27. This represents a 27.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Yum China Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE YUMC opened at $43.03 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $47.70 and its 200-day simple moving average is $40.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a current ratio of 1.29. Yum China Holdings, Inc. has a 52 week low of $28.50 and a 52 week high of $52.00. The firm has a market cap of $16.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.04, a P/E/G ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 0.35.

Yum China (NYSE:YUMC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The company reported $0.77 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 company had revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.03 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.59 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Yum China Holdings, Inc. will post 2.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum China Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 26th were issued a dividend of $0.16 per share. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 26th. Yum China’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 28.32%.

Yum China 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.