Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Shares Purchased by Sherbrooke Park Advisers LLC

Sherbrooke Park Advisers LLC increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 38.3% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 3,502 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 969 shares during the period. Sherbrooke Park Advisers LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $470,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in Yum! Brands by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,355,367 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $315,996,000 after purchasing an additional 94,026 shares in the last quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC increased its position 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 purchasing an additional 452,339 shares in the last quarter. DJE Kapital AG acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,306,000. Forsta AP Fonden grew its position in Yum! Brands by 5.3% in the fourth quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 110,500 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $14,825,000 after acquiring an additional 5,600 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Yum! Brands by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,677,290 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $225,025,000 after acquiring an additional 44,428 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP David Eric Russell sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.66, for a total transaction of $793,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 11,960 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,897,573.60. The trade was a 29.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 30,604 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.46, for a total transaction of $4,880,113.84. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 160,296 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,560,800.16. This trade represents a 16.03% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 62,334 shares of company stock valued at $9,734,737 over the last 90 days. 0.33% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have issued reports on YUM shares. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded shares of Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $140.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $151.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, May 5th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $163.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Sixteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $156.70.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Yum! Brands stock opened at $147.74 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $41.07 billion, a PE ratio of 28.30, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.77. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $149.76 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $141.97. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $122.13 and a 12 month high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.30 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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%. The firm’s revenue was up 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.15 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 27th will be issued a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.92%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 27th. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 56.57%.

Yum! Brands Company 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.