William Blair Investment Management LLC Invests $243.90 Million in Yum China Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:YUMC)

William Blair Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Yum China Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:YUMC) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 5,063,332 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $243,901,000. William Blair Investment Management LLC owned approximately 1.33% of Yum China as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in YUMC. Atria Investments Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Yum China by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 23,074 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,111,000 after buying an additional 273 shares during the last quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Yum China by 4.7% in the 4th quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 6,180 shares of the company’s stock valued at $298,000 after buying an additional 276 shares during the last quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. boosted its holdings in shares of Yum China by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 23,692 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,067,000 after buying an additional 304 shares during the last quarter. Hanson & Doremus Investment Management boosted its holdings in shares of Yum China by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Hanson & Doremus Investment Management now owns 57,104 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,751,000 after buying an additional 307 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Yum China by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. now owns 14,054 shares of the company’s stock valued at $677,000 after buying an additional 309 shares during the last quarter. 85.58% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Yum China Trading Up 5.0 %

Shares of Yum China stock opened at $51.53 on Monday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $46.92 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $45.41. Yum China Holdings, Inc. has a 1 year low of $28.50 and a 1 year high of $52.00. The company has a market capitalization of $19.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.11, a P/E/G ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 0.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 1.29 and a quick ratio of 1.15.

Yum China (NYSE:YUMC) last announced its quarterly 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%. Research analysts forecast that Yum China Holdings, Inc. will post 2.54 EPS for the current year.

Yum China Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Shareholders 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.86%. Yum China’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 41.20%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum China

In other news, insider Jeff Kuai sold 3,900 shares of Yum China stock in a transaction on Monday, February 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.21, for a total transaction of $188,019.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 56,602 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,728,782.42. This trade represents a 6.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Joey Wat sold 37,252 shares of Yum China stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.71, for a total value of $1,851,796.92. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 382,657 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,021,879.47. This represents a 8.87 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 45,152 shares of company stock valued at $2,242,176 in the last quarter. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, StockNews.com downgraded Yum China from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 25th.

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.