Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM Shares Bought by Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC

Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 26.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 21,682 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 4,477 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $3,280,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in YUM. Wiser Advisor Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the third quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Community Bank N.A. purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the third quarter worth approximately $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Yum! Brands by 81.7% in the 3rd quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 198 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares during the last quarter. CNB Bank raised its stake in Yum! Brands by 833.3% in the 3rd quarter. CNB Bank now owns 224 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new position in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter valued at $36,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

YUM has been the topic of several recent research reports. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Barclays set a $185.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Morgan Stanley set a $180.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Friday, May 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Finally, Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $190.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Friday, February 13th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $176.22.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 250 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.48, for a total transaction of $40,120.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 64,552 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,359,304.96. The trade was a 0.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 1,612 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $164.63, for a total transaction of $265,383.56. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 2,665 shares of company stock worth $437,283 over the last ninety days. 0.14% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 3.4%

Shares of YUM opened at $151.83 on Friday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $137.33 and a 52-week high of $169.39. The company has a market capitalization of $41.85 billion, a PE ratio of 24.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.61. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $159.21 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $154.88.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The restaurant operator reported $1.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.39 by $0.11. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 20.48% and a negative return on equity of 23.51%. The firm had revenue of $2.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.04 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.30 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 6.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Profile

Yum! Brands, Inc (NYSE: YUM) is a global quick-service restaurant company that develops, operates and franchises a portfolio of well-known restaurant brands. The company’s principal brands are KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, each focused on distinct product categories—KFC on fried chicken and related menu items, Pizza Hut on pizza and complementary offerings, and Taco Bell on Mexican-inspired quick-service food. Yum! is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky and was formed as Tricon Global Restaurants in 1997 when PepsiCo spun off its restaurant businesses, later adopting the Yum! Brands name.

The company’s operating model centers on brand development, system growth and franchising; a large portion of its restaurants are operated by independent franchisees, and Yum! generates revenue through franchise royalties and fees in addition to sales from company-operated locations.