Caprock Group LLC Sells 723 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Caprock Group LLC cut its holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 21.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,581 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 723 shares during the quarter. Caprock Group LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $361,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. EntryPoint Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 29.2% during the first quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC now owns 416 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $58,000 after buying an additional 94 shares during the last quarter. LRI Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the 1st quarter valued at about $120,000. BOKF NA grew its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 30.4% in the first quarter. BOKF NA now owns 28,890 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $4,058,000 after acquiring an additional 6,728 shares during the period. Ascent Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 4.3% during the first quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 2,045 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $284,000 after purchasing an additional 84 shares during the last quarter. Finally, B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Yum! Brands by 9.4% during the first quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 3,846 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $533,000 after purchasing an additional 332 shares during the period. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of Yum! Brands stock opened at $135.27 on Friday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $123.70 and a 52 week high of $143.20. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $134.45 and its 200-day simple moving average is $134.49. The company has a market capitalization of $37.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.28, a PEG ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 1.10.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.37 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.41 by ($0.04). The business had revenue of $1.83 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.90 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 18.93% and a net margin of 21.13%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.44 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be issued a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.98%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 50.09%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,005 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.43, for a total value of $941,682.15. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 152,634 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,518,588.62. The trade was a 4.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders have sold a total of 21,069 shares of company stock worth $2,842,965 in the last 90 days. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on YUM. Bank of America decreased their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Yum! Brands from $137.00 to $144.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Yum! Brands from $150.00 to $154.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Loop Capital lowered their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $143.00 to $140.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Twelve equities 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, Yum! Brands currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $145.94.

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.