Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. Has $1.25 Million Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. boosted its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 8.0% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,414 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 620 shares during the quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $1,247,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. HFM Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Yum! Brands in the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. Greykasell Wealth Strategies Inc. acquired a new position in Yum! Brands in the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. Manchester Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Yum! Brands by 78.0% in the 1st quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 162 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 71 shares during the last quarter. Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group acquired a new position in Yum! Brands in the 2nd quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, Wayfinding Financial LLC bought a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 1st quarter valued at $32,000. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Weir Mirian M. Graddick sold 2,038 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $145.30, for a total transaction of $296,121.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 1,233 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $179,154.90. This trade represents a 62.31% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 12,220 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $148.24, for a total transaction of $1,811,492.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 29,078 shares of company stock valued at $4,304,785. Company insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $155.00 to $157.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $156.00 to $158.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $155.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $165.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Tuesday. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and thirteen have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $163.18.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

NYSE:YUM opened at $148.64 on Wednesday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $147.41 and a 200-day moving average of $146.23. The company has a market capitalization of $41.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.32, a PEG ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.72. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $122.13 and a 52 week high of $163.30.

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

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 12th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 2nd were issued a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 2nd. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 56.02%.

Yum! Brands Profile

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.