NEOS Investment Management LLC Purchases 3,731 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

NEOS Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 30.7% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 15,880 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 3,731 shares during the period. NEOS Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $2,130,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of YUM. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its holdings in Yum! Brands by 10.5% during the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 13,000 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,817,000 after buying an additional 1,234 shares during the last quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 10.3% in the 3rd quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 16,779 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,344,000 after acquiring an additional 1,568 shares during the last quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC bought a new position in Yum! Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,227,000. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 8.4% during the 3rd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 117,959 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $16,480,000 after purchasing an additional 9,099 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fiduciary Trust Co increased its holdings in Yum! Brands by 3.4% during the 3rd quarter. Fiduciary Trust Co now owns 9,637 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,346,000 after purchasing an additional 319 shares in the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

YUM has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $176.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Argus upgraded Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, December 31st. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $146.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. 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 report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $162.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Fifteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $151.79.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of NYSE YUM opened at $155.72 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $43.46 billion, a PE ratio of 29.83, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $122.13 and a one year high of $163.30. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $147.14 and its 200-day moving average price is $138.61.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders 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 1.82%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. This is a positive change from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 54.41%.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, insider Erika Burkhardt sold 597 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $159.07, for a total transaction of $94,964.79. Following the sale, the insider now owns 64 shares in the company, valued at $10,180.48. This represents a 90.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 160,296 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,560,800.16. The trade was a 16.03 % 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 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

About Yum! Brands

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.