Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Shares Sold by Atria Wealth Solutions Inc.

Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. reduced its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 34.8% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 10,513 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 5,623 shares during the period. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $1,410,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in YUM. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC now owns 2,165 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $290,000 after purchasing an additional 82 shares in the last quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Yum! Brands by 7.4% in the third quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 1,329 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $186,000 after buying an additional 92 shares during the period. Graypoint LLC lifted its position in Yum! Brands by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Graypoint LLC now owns 5,902 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $792,000 after buying an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. Joel Isaacson & Co. LLC grew its stake in Yum! Brands by 2.1% during the third quarter. Joel Isaacson & Co. LLC now owns 4,927 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $688,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Finally, Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. grew its stake in Yum! Brands by 52.1% during the fourth quarter. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. now owns 295 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 101 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.06, for a total transaction of $522,883.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,385 shares in the company, valued at $20,474,708.10. This represents a 2.49 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently weighed in on YUM. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “equal weight” rating and issued a $140.00 price objective (down from $158.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Argus upgraded Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $140.00 to $135.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $141.00 price target (down from $153.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $147.37.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 1.6 %

Shares of NYSE:YUM opened at $148.51 on Monday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $134.35 and a 200 day simple moving average of $135.02. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $122.13 and a fifty-two week high of $151.29. The company has a market cap of $41.45 billion, a PE ratio of 28.45, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.10.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st will be given a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.91%. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 21st. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 51.34%.

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.