J. Safra Sarasin Holding AG Purchases Shares of 16,027 Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

J. Safra Sarasin Holding AG bought a new position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 16,027 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $2,375,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in YUM. Manchester Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Yum! Brands by 78.0% during the 1st quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 162 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 71 shares during the period. Greykasell Wealth Strategies Inc. acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $25,000. HFM Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands in the second quarter worth approximately $29,000. Finally, Wayfinding Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the 1st quarter valued at about $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently commented on YUM shares. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $155.00 to $157.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $155.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Redburn Atlantic raised shares of Yum! Brands from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $145.00 to $177.00 in a research report on Tuesday, June 10th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $167.00 price target (up from $165.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Saturday, September 27th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and thirteen have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $161.32.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,176 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $149.80, for a total value of $1,074,964.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 102,893 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,413,371.40. This represents a 6.52% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Weir Mirian M. Graddick sold 2,038 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $145.30, for a total value of $296,121.40. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 1,233 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $179,154.90. This trade represents a 62.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 36,195 shares of company stock valued at $5,348,137. Insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of YUM opened at $150.61 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $41.80 billion, a PE ratio of 29.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 0.72. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $122.13 and a 12-month high of $163.30. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $147.05 and its 200-day simple moving average is $147.28.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced 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). The business had revenue of $1.93 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.94 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 18.11% and a negative return on equity of 21.01%. Yum! Brands’s revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.35 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 12th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 2nd were paid a $0.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 2nd. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 56.02%.

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.