Man Group plc Grows Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Man Group plc boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 602.1% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 364,836 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 312,871 shares during the period. Man Group plc’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $48,946,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. increased its holdings in Yum! Brands by 436.5% in the 4th quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 279 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 227 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 52.1% during the 4th quarter. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. now owns 295 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 101 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered shares of Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $140.00 to $135.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on Yum! Brands from $176.00 to $174.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 7th. UBS Group upped their price target on Yum! Brands from $156.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Citigroup increased their price target on Yum! Brands from $148.00 to $151.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Finally, Cowen reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Sixteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $156.70.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of YUM opened at $145.03 on Thursday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $122.13 and a fifty-two week high of $163.30. The company has a market cap of $40.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.78, a PEG ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.77. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $150.15 and its 200 day moving average price is $141.73.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.30 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.29 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $1.79 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.85 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 19.68% and a negative return on equity of 20.33%. Yum! Brands’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.15 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Yum! Brands news, VP David Eric Russell sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.66, for a total transaction of $793,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 11,960 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,897,573.60. This represents a 29.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 8,638 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.36, for a total value of $1,367,913.68. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 2,970 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $470,329.20. This represents a 74.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 55,271 shares of company stock worth $8,706,576. Insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

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.