National Bank of Canada FI Has $27.13 Million Stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

National Bank of Canada FI boosted its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 53.4% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 202,207 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 70,428 shares during the quarter. National Bank of Canada FI’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $27,131,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Finally, Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. boosted its position in Yum! Brands by 52.1% during the 4th quarter. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. now owns 295 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $40,000 after acquiring an additional 101 shares during the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 30,604 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $159.46, for a total value of $4,880,113.84. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 160,296 shares in the company, valued at approximately $25,560,800.16. This trade represents a 16.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Erika Burkhardt sold 597 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.07, for a total transaction of $94,964.79. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 64 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,180.48. This represents a 90.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 50,132 shares of company stock worth $7,952,685 in the last quarter. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Argus upgraded shares of Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, December 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered shares of Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $140.00 to $135.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. TD Securities restated a “hold” rating and set a $164.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Yum! Brands from $146.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on Yum! Brands from $156.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Sixteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $151.70.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

YUM opened at $161.46 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $149.76 and a 200 day simple moving average of $139.32. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $122.13 and a 1 year high of $163.30. The company has a market capitalization of $45.06 billion, a PE ratio of 30.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Investors of record on Friday, February 21st were given a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.76%. This is a positive change from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 21st. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 54.41%.

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.