Capital Analysts LLC Grows Stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Capital Analysts LLC increased its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 59.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,104 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 413 shares during the period. Capital Analysts LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $145,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its position in Yum! Brands by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 22,079 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,828,000 after acquiring an additional 77 shares in the last quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 14.1% in the fourth quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 631 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $82,000 after purchasing an additional 78 shares during the last quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,003 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,046,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares during the last quarter. Claro Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Claro Advisors LLC now owns 8,847 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,156,000 after acquiring an additional 83 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Belpointe Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 3.5% during the first quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC now owns 2,607 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $344,000 after acquiring an additional 88 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Guggenheim lifted their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Oppenheimer raised shares of Yum! Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $154.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Friday, January 5th. TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $160.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $133.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of Yum! Brands from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $150.00 to $135.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $145.00.

Yum! Brands Trading Up 0.0 %

NYSE YUM opened at $137.84 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $137.06 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $130.08. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $115.53 and a 12-month high of $143.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $38.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.66, a P/E/G ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.10.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The restaurant operator reported $1.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.39 by ($0.13). Yum! Brands had a net margin of 22.57% and a negative return on equity of 17.76%. The firm had revenue of $2.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.11 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.31 earnings per share. Yum! Brands’s revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 8th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 21st were given a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.94%. This is an increase from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.61. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 20th. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.94%.

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,078 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.37, for a total value of $979,382.86. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 172,128 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,817,351.36. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,078 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.37, for a total transaction of $979,382.86. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 172,128 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,817,351.36. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP David Eric Russell sold 9,919 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.63, for a total value of $1,285,799.97. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 18,661 shares in the company, valued at $2,419,025.43. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 24,064 shares of company stock valued at $3,228,698 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Company 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.