Procyon Advisors LLC Buys 3,640 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Procyon Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 33.8% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 14,408 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,640 shares during the period. Procyon Advisors LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $2,240,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of YUM. Capital International Investors raised its position in Yum! Brands by 20.0% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 19,419,826 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,938,139,000 after purchasing an additional 3,240,190 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,164,814 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,991,573,000 after buying an additional 124,720 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Yum! Brands by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,800,382 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,334,427,000 after buying an additional 121,304 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter valued at $706,799,000. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 4,471,127 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $676,392,000 after buying an additional 104,512 shares during the period. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 1.1%

YUM stock opened at $161.81 on Tuesday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $137.33 and a twelve month high of $170.14. The company has a market cap of $44.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.56. The business’s fifty day moving average is $154.55 and its 200-day moving average is $156.90.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The restaurant operator reported $1.50 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $2.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.04 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 23.51% and a net margin of 20.48%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.30 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 6.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 27th were issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 27th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.39%.

Yum! Brands announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Tuesday, June 16th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the restaurant operator to repurchase up to 9.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on YUM shares. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Yum! Brands from $175.00 to $178.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Sunday. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $165.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, April 20th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Yum! Brands from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $174.81.

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

In related news, CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 270 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $148.14, for a total value of $39,997.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 64,282 shares in the company, valued at $9,522,735.48. This trade represents a 0.42% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 277 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.48, for a total transaction of $44,452.96. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 483 shares in the company, valued at $77,511.84. The trade was a 36.45% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last three months, insiders sold 12,423 shares of company stock worth $1,953,721. 0.14% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About Yum! Brands

Yum! Brands, Inc (NYSE: YUM) is a global quick-service restaurant company that develops, operates and franchises a portfolio of well-known restaurant brands. The company’s principal brands are KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, each focused on distinct product categories—KFC on fried chicken and related menu items, Pizza Hut on pizza and complementary offerings, and Taco Bell on Mexican-inspired quick-service food. Yum! is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky and was formed as Tricon Global Restaurants in 1997 when PepsiCo spun off its restaurant businesses, later adopting the Yum! Brands name.

The company’s operating model centers on brand development, system growth and franchising; a large portion of its restaurants are operated by independent franchisees, and Yum! generates revenue through franchise royalties and fees in addition to sales from company-operated locations.