Tyler Stone Wealth Management Increases Stock Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Tyler Stone Wealth Management grew its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 7.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,856 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 132 shares during the period. Tyler Stone Wealth Management’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $249,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Cantillon Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Yum! Brands by 31.7% during the 4th quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,880,379 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $252,272,000 after buying an additional 452,339 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter worth $59,289,000. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 140.3% during the fourth quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 437,625 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $58,712,000 after acquiring an additional 255,495 shares during the period. Anchor Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter valued at $30,098,000. Finally, Amundi boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 23.8% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 749,895 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $95,792,000 after purchasing an additional 144,406 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

YUM has been the topic of several recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $156.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $138.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $130.00 to $148.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Fifteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $151.79.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:YUM opened at $158.55 on Thursday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $122.13 and a 1-year high of $163.30. The stock has a market cap of $44.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.37, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $145.90 and a 200 day moving average price of $138.32.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st were paid a dividend of $0.71 per share. This is an increase from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.79%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is 54.41%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 5,293 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.24, for a total value of $816,392.32. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 157,893 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,353,416.32. This trade represents a 3.24 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 8,638 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief operating officer now owns 2,970 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $470,329.20. This trade represents a 74.41 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 50,132 shares of company stock valued at $7,952,685 over the last quarter. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.