Loop Capital Markets Maintains Hold Rating on Yum! Brands with $140 Price Target

Loop Capital Markets analyst maintained a Hold rating on Yum! Brands with a price target of $140.00, while Citi's Jon Tower issued a Hold on July 20. However, TR | OpenAI upgraded the company to a Buy on July 18. The company has a one-year high of $163.30 and a one-year low of $122.13, with an average volume of 1.93M.

Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) has seen a mix of analyst ratings in recent weeks, reflecting differing views on the company's stock performance and future prospects. Loop Capital Markets maintained a Hold rating with a price target of $140.00 [1], while Citi's Jon Tower issued a Hold on July 20. However, TR | OpenAI upgraded the company to a Buy on July 18 [1]. The stock has traded between a one-year high of $163.30 and a one-year low of $122.13, with an average daily volume of 1.93 million shares [1].

The consensus rating from 23 ratings firms covering Yum! Brands is a Hold, with 13 analysts rating the stock as Hold and 10 rating it as Buy [1]. The average one-year target price among these analysts is $159.86 [1]. Key analysts have provided varying insights:

- Robert W. Baird cut their target price to $174.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock [1].
- Oppenheimer reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $185.00 target price [1].
- Citigroup lifted their target price to $151.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating [1].
- JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and cut their target price to $162.00 [1].
- The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $167.00 target price [1].

Yum! Brands reported $1.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.29 by $0.01 [1]. The company's revenue for the quarter was $1.79 billion, up 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year [1]. The company's estimated fair value is $153 based on a two-stage DCF model, suggesting the stock is trading close to its fair value [2].

Institutional investors have recently increased their stakes in Yum! Brands. Vanguard Group Inc., Geode Capital Management LLC, Northern Trust Corp, Norges Bank, and FMR LLC have all boosted their positions in the stock [1]. CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 272 shares on July 1st, and CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,117 shares on July 15th [1].

As Yum! Brands continues to navigate the fast-food market, investors should closely monitor analyst ratings, earnings reports, and institutional ownership changes to make informed investment decisions.

References:
[1] https://www.marketbeat.com/instant-alerts/yum-brands-inc-nyseyum-receives-average-recommendation-of-hold-from-brokerages-2025-07-17/
[2] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/estimating-intrinsic-value-yum-brands-120020155.html