Hudson Bay Capital Management LP Makes New $24.79 Million Investment in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Hudson Bay Capital Management LP bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 163,069 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $24,786,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Salomon & Ludwin LLC boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 679.2% in the third quarter. Salomon & Ludwin LLC now owns 187 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 163 shares during the period. Wiser Advisor Group LLC bought a new position in Yum! Brands during the 3rd quarter worth $28,000. Community Bank N.A. acquired a new position in Yum! Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CNB Bank lifted its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 200 shares during the period. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Shares of YUM opened at $159.00 on Thursday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $137.33 and a 52-week high of $169.39. The firm has a market cap of $43.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.65, a PEG ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.64. The business’s fifty day moving average is $159.34 and its 200-day moving average is $152.21.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.73 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.76 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $2.52 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.45 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 22.42% and a net margin of 18.98%.Yum! Brands’s quarterly revenue was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.61 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 20th were paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 20th. This is a positive change 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 presently 54.05%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently issued reports on YUM shares. Gordon Haskett raised Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 8th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $165.00 to $176.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated a “positive” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $190.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $180.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $174.50.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In related news, CEO Aaron Powell sold 12,000 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $161.44, for a total transaction of $1,937,280.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 14,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,365,096. The trade was a 45.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 1,612 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $164.63, for a total transaction of $265,383.56. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 14,138 shares of company stock valued at $2,289,990. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.