Voleon Capital Management LP Sells 2,387 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Voleon Capital Management LP cut its holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 35.0% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 4,434 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 2,387 shares during the period. Voleon Capital Management LP’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $698,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 8.0% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,861 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,055,000 after acquiring an additional 583 shares during the period. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. raised its stake in Yum! Brands by 103.6% during the 4th quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 3,797 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $509,000 after purchasing an additional 110,000 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 5.7% in the 4th quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 52,404 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $7,030,000 after purchasing an additional 2,807 shares during the period. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc grew its position in Yum! Brands by 28.0% in the 4th quarter. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc now owns 31,592 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $4,238,000 after purchasing an additional 6,910 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 6.4% during the 4th quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 61,820 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $8,294,000 after purchasing an additional 3,715 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:YUM opened at $146.04 on Wednesday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $146.67 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $148.04. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $122.13 and a fifty-two week high of $163.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $40.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.73.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by ($0.02). Yum! Brands had a net margin of 18.11% and a negative return on equity of 21.01%. The company had revenue of $1.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.94 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.35 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 12th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 2nd will be given a $0.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 2nd. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is 56.02%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

YUM has been the subject of several research reports. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $164.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Yum! Brands from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $167.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 4th. Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and set a $167.00 price objective (up from $165.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $155.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Finally, Melius began coverage on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, July 14th. They set a “buy” rating and a $200.00 price target on the stock. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and thirteen have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $161.23.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 12,220 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $148.24, for a total transaction of $1,811,492.80. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 263 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $139.92, for a total transaction of $36,798.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,755 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $245,559.60. This trade represents a 13.03% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 29,016 shares of company stock valued at $4,271,543 over the last three months. 0.33% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Yum! Brands

Yum! Brands, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, develops, operates, and franchises quick service restaurants worldwide. The company operates through the KFC Division, the Taco Bell Division, the Pizza Hut Division, and the Habit Burger Grill Division segments. It also operates restaurants under the KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and The Habit Burger Grill brands, which specialize in chicken, pizza, made-to-order chargrilled burgers, sandwiches, Mexican-style food categories, and other food products.