Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) CEO Scott Mezvinsky Sells 284 Shares of Stock

Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 284 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.02, for a total transaction of $47,149.68. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website.

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

• On Friday, February 13th, Scott Mezvinsky sold 1,612 shares of Yum! Brands stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $164.63, for a total value of $265,383.56.
• On Monday, December 1st, Scott Mezvinsky sold 276 shares of Yum! Brands stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $153.17, for a total value of $42,274.92.

Yum! Brands Trading Up 1.1%

Shares of YUM traded up $1.81 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $167.52. The company had a trading volume of 48,112 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,033,064. The company has a market capitalization of $46.31 billion, a PE ratio of 30.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.66. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $137.33 and a one year high of $169.39. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $157.09 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $150.83.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.76 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $2.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.45 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 18.98% and a negative return on equity of 22.42%. Yum! Brands’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.61 EPS. Analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 20th will be paid a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. This is a positive change from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 20th. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is 54.05%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

YUM has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Yum! Brands from $165.00 to $176.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued a “positive” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, February 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $177.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. Finally, Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $190.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $174.50.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Yum! Brands

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of YUM. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.0% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,242,558 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $5,356,869,000 after acquiring an additional 684,946 shares during the period. Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 20.0% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 19,419,826 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,938,139,000 after purchasing an additional 3,240,190 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in Yum! Brands by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,164,814 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,991,573,000 after purchasing an additional 124,720 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,800,382 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,334,427,000 after buying an additional 121,304 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter worth about $706,799,000. 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.