Teacher Retirement System of Texas Reduces Stock Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Teacher Retirement System of Texas lessened its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 23.9% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 186,775 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 58,733 shares during the period. Teacher Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $28,390,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Salomon & Ludwin LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 679.2% during the third quarter. Salomon & Ludwin LLC now owns 187 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 163 shares during the period. CNB Bank raised its position in Yum! Brands by 833.3% during 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. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. bought a new position in Yum! Brands during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $40,000. Finally, Private Wealth Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 219.4% in the 2nd quarter. Private Wealth Asset Management LLC now owns 297 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $44,000 after buying an additional 204 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In other news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 1,755 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $148.81, for a total transaction of $261,161.55. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Erika Burkhardt sold 1,269 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $149.37, for a total value of $189,550.53. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 64 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,559.68. This represents a 95.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 30,695 shares of company stock valued at $4,582,843 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Trading Down 0.4%

YUM opened at $152.98 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $42.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 0.67. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $152.04 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $148.53. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $126.75 and a 12-month high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $1.98 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.96 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 17.95% and a negative return on equity of 21.79%. The company’s revenue was up 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.37 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 2nd were paid a dividend of $0.71 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 2nd. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 55.36%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently issued reports on YUM. Stifel Nicolaus set a $160.00 target price on Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, November 17th. Gordon Haskett upgraded shares of Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 8th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $150.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $164.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $170.30.

Yum! Brands Company 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.