Cigna Investments Inc. New Sells 401 Shares of Yum China Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:YUMC)

Cigna Investments Inc. New lowered its stake in shares of Yum China Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:YUMC) by 5.2% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 7,289 shares of the company’s stock after selling 401 shares during the quarter. Cigna Investments Inc. New’s holdings in Yum China were worth $351,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in YUMC. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of Yum China by 4,176.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,588,977 shares of the company’s stock valued at $161,576,000 after buying an additional 3,505,053 shares during the last quarter. Waverton Investment Management Ltd raised its stake in shares of Yum China by 350.7% during the 3rd 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. lifted 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 acquiring an additional 2,609,494 shares during the last quarter. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd boosted its stake in Yum China by 61.4% in the third quarter. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd now owns 2,942,959 shares of the company’s stock valued at $132,492,000 after acquiring an additional 1,120,054 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hhlr Advisors LTD. purchased a new position in Yum China in the third quarter worth $29,977,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.58% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently commented on YUMC shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Yum China from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $35.50 to $60.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. StockNews.com cut Yum China from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Yum China presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $49.57.

Insider Activity at Yum China

In other Yum China news, insider Duoduo (Howard) Huang sold 6,377 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $47.47, for a total value of $302,716.19. Following 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Yum China Trading Down 1.3 %

NYSE YUMC opened at $47.43 on Wednesday. Yum China Holdings, Inc. has a 12-month low of $28.50 and a 12-month high of $52.00. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $46.87 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $42.66. The company has a current ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. The stock has a market cap of $18.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.36, a P/E/G ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 0.33.

Yum China (NYSE:YUMC) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported $0.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.31 by ($0.01). Yum China had a net margin of 8.06% and a return on equity of 13.83%. On average, analysts forecast that Yum China Holdings, Inc. will post 2.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum China Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 6th will be issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. This is an increase from Yum China’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.16. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 6th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.02%. Yum China’s payout ratio is 27.47%.

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.