Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) CEO Scott Mezvinsky Sells 277 Shares of Stock

Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 277 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.48, for a total transaction of $44,452.96. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 483 shares in the company, valued at $77,511.84. The trade was a 36.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Scott Mezvinsky also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Thursday, February 26th, Scott Mezvinsky sold 284 shares of Yum! Brands stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.02, for a total transaction of $47,149.68.
• On Friday, February 13th, Scott Mezvinsky sold 1,612 shares of Yum! Brands stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $164.63, for a total transaction of $265,383.56.

Yum! Brands Trading Down 0.9%

Shares of YUM stock opened at $158.17 on Friday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $137.33 and a 1 year high of $169.39. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $159.77 and its 200-day moving average is $154.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.51, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.61.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The restaurant operator reported $1.50 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $2.06 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.04 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 20.48% and a negative return on equity of 23.51%. Yum! Brands’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.30 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 6.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 20th were paid a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 20th. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is currently 54.05%.

Key Yum! Brands News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Q1 beat and margin upside — Yum reported Q1 EPS of $1.50 (above estimates) with revenue up ~15% and a large profit jump; digital sales reached a record (~63% of system sales), supporting better-than-expected fundamentals. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Taco Bell strength and improving visibility — Analysts (Morgan Stanley coverage cited) highlight Taco Bell’s continued comp strength and loyalty/digital engagement gains as drivers of near-term visibility and growth. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: KFC global expansion and delivery gains — Management and industry write-ups point to KFC fueling international growth, helping the company’s top-line and margin mix. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst price-target moves are modestly supportive but ratings remain conservative — Citi and Wells Fargo raised price targets slightly but maintain neutral/equal-weight ratings, limiting immediate bullish catalyst strength. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Insider sales executed under 10b5?1 plans — CEO Scott Mezvinsky and CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold shares (pre-arranged plans); such filings can create near-term selling pressure but are less informative about company fundamentals. Read More. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Pizza Hut lagging — Coverage highlights Pizza Hut’s continued underperformance, which can blunt overall company upside and keep investors cautious until a clearer turnaround is visible. Read More.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on YUM shares. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 6th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $165.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $176.06.

Institutional Trading of Yum! Brands

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Econ Financial Services Corp lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Econ Financial Services Corp now owns 15,536 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,416,000 after buying an additional 63 shares during the last quarter. Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC now owns 3,292 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $498,000 after buying an additional 63 shares during the last quarter. Augustine Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Augustine Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,287 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $497,000 after buying an additional 64 shares during the last quarter. Essex Financial Services Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Essex Financial Services Inc. now owns 6,667 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,009,000 after buying an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hilltop Holdings Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Hilltop Holdings Inc. now owns 2,525 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $382,000 after buying an additional 68 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

About Yum! Brands

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.