Danske Bank A S Makes New Investment in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Danske Bank A S bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 228,223 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $36,484,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Harrell Investment Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.5% during the second quarter. Harrell Investment Partners LLC now owns 4,235 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $677,000 after buying an additional 62 shares during the last quarter. Econ Financial Services Corp boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 0.4% in the first quarter. Econ Financial Services Corp now owns 15,536 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,416,000 after acquiring an additional 63 shares during the last quarter. Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC now owns 3,292 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $498,000 after acquiring an additional 63 shares during the last quarter. Essex Financial Services Inc. grew its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 66 shares during the period. Finally, Hilltop Holdings Inc. grew its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 68 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Tuesday, June 16th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Yum! Brands from $175.00 to $178.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Sunday, July 12th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $168.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, May 4th. Morgan Stanley raised Yum! Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the company from $180.00 to $185.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, UBS Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $174.65.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, VP David Eric Russell sold 7,961 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $153.15, for a total value of $1,219,227.15. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 11,960 shares in the company, valued at $1,831,674. This represents a 39.96% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Aaron Powell sold 6,001 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.42, for a total value of $962,680.42. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 12,003 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,925,521.26. This represents a 33.33% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last quarter, insiders sold 18,549 shares of company stock valued at $2,890,168. Insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 0.9%

Shares of YUM stock opened at $146.15 on Thursday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $137.33 and a 12-month high of $170.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $39.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 0.55. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $153.46 and a 200-day moving average of $156.02.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.62 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.58 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $2.17 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.18 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 24.57% and a net margin of 25.42%.The firm’s revenue was up 12.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.44 EPS. Research analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 6.42 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback plan on Tuesday, June 16th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the restaurant operator to buy up to 9.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

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.