Vanguard Group Inc. Increases Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 35,242,558 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 684,946 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 12.70% of Yum! Brands worth $5,356,869,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 8.0% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,861 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,055,000 after purchasing an additional 583 shares in the last quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 8.0% during the 2nd quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 8,414 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,247,000 after buying an additional 620 shares during the last quarter. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.7% in the 2nd quarter. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,363 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $498,000 after buying an additional 87 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 21.8% in the 2nd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 2,387 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $354,000 after buying an additional 427 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC raised its stake in Yum! Brands by 23.9% during the 2nd quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 2,930 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $433,000 after acquiring an additional 566 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 1,612 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $164.63, for a total value of $265,383.56. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Aaron Powell sold 12,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $161.44, for a total value of $1,937,280.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 14,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,365,096. This trade represents a 45.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 13,888 shares of company stock worth $2,244,938. Insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have issued reports on YUM. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, December 29th. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $180.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, February 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $177.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. Gordon Haskett raised Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 8th. Finally, TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $180.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $174.00.

Yum! Brands Trading Up 0.4%

Shares of YUM stock opened at $161.20 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $44.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.66. The business’s 50 day moving average is $155.15 and its two-hundred day moving average is $149.86. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $137.33 and a twelve month high of $165.32.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.73 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.76 by ($0.03). Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 22.42% and a net margin of 18.98%.The company had revenue of $2.51 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.45 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.61 EPS. Yum! Brands’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 20th will be paid a $0.75 dividend. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 20th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.9%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.17%.

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.