Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM Shares Bought by Rakuten Investment Management Inc.

Rakuten Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 8.9% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 49,160 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,033 shares during the period. Rakuten Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $6,771,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of YUM. Bleakley Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the first quarter valued at about $1,589,000. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al acquired a new position in Yum! Brands in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $99,621,000. Tidal Investments LLC raised its holdings in Yum! Brands by 114.4% in the 2nd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 53,189 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $8,503,000 after acquiring an additional 28,380 shares in the last quarter. SEB Asset Management AB acquired a new position in Yum! Brands in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $15,285,000. Finally, National Pension Service lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 4.0% in the 2nd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 470,206 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $75,167,000 after acquiring an additional 18,060 shares during the period. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Stories Impacting Yum! Brands

Here are the key news stories impacting Yum! Brands this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Taco Bell sales are rebounding after the summer food-safety outbreak, with the recovery reportedly outpacing expectations. KFC International also delivered strong growth, helping offset softness in the U.S. Taco Bell recovery article
• Positive Sentiment: Guggenheim raised its price target to $180 and assigned a Buy rating, signaling potential upside in its view. Guggenheim rating information
• Neutral Sentiment: Q3 revenue was about $2.054 billion, while the earnings beat was helped by a gain from the Pizza Hut sale. Yum also reported growth excluding Pizza Hut, but results varied across its brands. Earnings and bull-case article
• Negative Sentiment: KFC’s U.S. system sales fell 6% in the quarter, suggesting its domestic turnaround remains difficult. Zacks Research also downgraded YUM from Hold to Strong Sell, adding a bearish counterpoint to the positive analyst target revisions. KFC U.S. sales article

Yum! Brands Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of YUM opened at $165.89 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $45.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.31, a P/E/G ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.53. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $134.26 and a 12 month high of $170.14. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $146.71 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $153.54.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 3rd. The restaurant operator reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.51 by $0.05. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 25.54% and a net margin of 39.14%. The company had revenue of $2.05 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.05 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.58 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 6.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 9th were given a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 9th. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.08%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Christopher Turner sold 285 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $140.11, for a total value of $39,931.35. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 63,225 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,858,454.75. The trade was a 0.45% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 3,494 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.00, for a total value of $552,052.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 3 shares in the company, valued at approximately $474. This represents a 99.91% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 4,288 shares of company stock worth $666,149 in the last 90 days. 0.14% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on YUM. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Yum! Brands from $168.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. Wells Fargo & Company raised Yum! Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $165.00 to $175.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 10th. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $191.00 to $193.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, July 20th. Argus lowered shares of Yum! Brands from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 24th. Finally, Gordon Haskett lowered their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $182.00 to $180.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 31st. Fourteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $175.67.

Yum! Brands Company Profile

Yum! Brands, Inc is a global restaurant company that operates, franchises and licenses quick-service and fast-casual restaurants. Its principal brands are KFC, which specializes in fried and other chicken products; Taco Bell, which offers Mexican-inspired food; Pizza Hut, which sells pizzas and related menu items; and The Habit Burger Grill, a fast-casual burger restaurant chain.

The company’s business is primarily franchise-based, with restaurants operated by independent franchisees and licensees alongside company-operated locations.