Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM Stock Holdings Lessened by Investment Partners LTD.

Investment Partners LTD. trimmed its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 38.1% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,001 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 1,231 shares during the quarter. Investment Partners LTD.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $297,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of YUM. Manchester Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 78.0% during the first 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 in the last quarter. Greykasell Wealth Strategies Inc. acquired a new position in Yum! Brands during the first quarter valued at $25,000. HFM Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands during the 1st quarter worth about $25,000. Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group purchased a new position in Yum! Brands during the 2nd quarter valued at about $29,000. Finally, Private Wealth Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 219.4% in the 2nd quarter. Private Wealth Asset Management LLC now owns 297 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 204 shares during the period. 82.37% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 0.7%

Shares of NYSE:YUM opened at $149.68 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $146.72 and a 200 day moving average price of $146.30. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $122.13 and a twelve month high of $163.30. The company has a market cap of $41.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.48, a PEG ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.73.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $1.98 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.96 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 21.01% and a net margin of 18.11%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.37 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 12th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 2nd were paid a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 2nd. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 55.36%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have commented on YUM shares. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $155.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th. Gordon Haskett raised shares of Yum! Brands to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Yum! Brands from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $165.00 to $180.00 in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. TD Cowen upped their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $156.00 to $162.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $166.29.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,176 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $149.80, for a total value of $1,074,964.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 102,893 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,413,371.40. This represents a 6.52% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Aaron Powell sold 2,790 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.48, for a total transaction of $419,839.20. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 26,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,010,292. The trade was a 9.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 32,864 shares of company stock valued at $4,884,532. 0.33% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.