Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Shares Sold by Signaturefd LLC

Signaturefd LLC lessened its stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 5.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 7,036 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 406 shares during the quarter. Signaturefd LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $919,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Global Retirement Partners LLC lifted its position in Yum! Brands by 14.1% during the 4th quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 631 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $82,000 after acquiring an additional 78 shares in the last quarter. Calamos Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. Calamos Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,692 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $221,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the period. Perigon Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,003 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,046,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares during the period. Claro Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Yum! Brands by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Claro Advisors LLC now owns 8,847 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,156,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cozad Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Yum! Brands by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Cozad Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,439 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $305,000 after buying an additional 90 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

YUM has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $164.00 to $166.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered Yum! Brands from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $150.00 to $135.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Argus restated a “hold” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Oppenheimer upgraded Yum! Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $154.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, January 5th. Finally, TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating and issued a $160.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $145.00.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

NYSE:YUM opened at $139.06 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $39.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.88, a P/E/G ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 1.10. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $137.38 and a 200 day simple moving average of $130.39. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $115.53 and a 12-month high of $143.24.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The restaurant operator reported $1.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.39 by ($0.13). Yum! Brands had a net margin of 22.57% and a negative return on equity of 17.76%. The firm had revenue of $2.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.11 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.31 EPS. The business’s revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 8th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 21st were given a $0.67 dividend. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.61. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 20th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.93%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is 47.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In other news, VP David Eric Russell sold 9,919 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.63, for a total value of $1,285,799.97. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 18,661 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,419,025.43. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,067 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.34, for a total transaction of $963,514.78. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 175,377 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,910,900.18. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, VP David Eric Russell sold 9,919 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.63, for a total transaction of $1,285,799.97. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 18,661 shares in the company, valued at $2,419,025.43. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 24,064 shares of company stock worth $3,228,698. 0.31% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Yum! Brands 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.