Yum China Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:YUMC) Short Interest Down 22.8% in December

Yum China Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:YUMC) was the recipient of a significant decrease in short interest during the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 10,590,000 shares, a decrease of 22.8% from the November 30th total of 13,710,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 3,350,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.2 days. Approximately 2.9% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Insider Transactions at Yum China

In other Yum China news, insider Duoduo (Howard) Huang sold 6,377 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $47.47, for a total transaction of $302,716.19. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 16,641 shares in the company, valued at approximately $789,948.27. This trade represents a 27.70 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Yum China

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Value Partners Investments Inc. grew its stake in shares of Yum China by 27.4% in the 3rd quarter. Value Partners Investments Inc. now owns 255,950 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,523,000 after buying an additional 55,000 shares in the last quarter. Waverton Investment Management Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Yum China by 350.7% in the 3rd quarter. Waverton Investment Management Ltd now owns 4,203,087 shares of the company’s stock valued at $189,202,000 after acquiring an additional 3,270,560 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC purchased a new position in Yum China in the third quarter worth about $2,177,000. GSA Capital Partners LLP increased its stake in Yum China by 100.2% during the third quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP now owns 35,760 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,610,000 after acquiring an additional 17,898 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its position in Yum China by 171.7% during the second quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 2,069,134 shares of the company’s stock valued at $63,812,000 after purchasing an additional 1,307,574 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 85.58% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Yum China Price Performance

NYSE:YUMC traded down $0.69 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $49.10. 992,344 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,122,186. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $47.54 and a 200 day moving average price of $39.59. The company has a quick ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. The company has a market cap of $18.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 0.36. Yum China has a 1 year low of $28.50 and a 1 year high of $52.00.

Yum China (NYSE:YUMC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The company reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.68 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.03 billion. Yum China had a return on equity of 13.39% and a net margin of 7.97%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.59 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Yum China will post 2.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum China Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 26th were given a dividend of $0.16 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 26th. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.30%. Yum China’s dividend 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.