Meeder Advisory Services Inc. Takes $1.42 Million Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Meeder Advisory Services Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor purchased 8,867 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $1,417,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC grew its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 8.0% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,861 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,055,000 after buying an additional 583 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 124.5% during the second quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 151,316 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $22,422,000 after acquiring an additional 83,916 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 10.0% during the second quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 117,824 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $17,447,000 after acquiring an additional 10,755 shares in the last quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina grew its holdings in Yum! Brands by 1.0% in the second quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 130,205 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $19,294,000 after purchasing an additional 1,256 shares during the period. Finally, HUB Investment Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 59.1% during the second quarter. HUB Investment Partners LLC now owns 2,319 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $344,000 after purchasing an additional 861 shares in the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

YUM has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Morgan Stanley raised Yum! Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $180.00 to $185.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Tuesday, June 16th. BMO Capital Markets reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $168.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, May 4th. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Tuesday, June 16th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $170.00 to $160.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, August 4th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $174.65.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Sean Tresvant sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.68, for a total transaction of $464,040.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 3,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $485,695.20. This represents a 48.86% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Aaron Powell sold 6,001 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.42, for a total value of $962,680.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 12,003 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,925,521.26. This trade represents a 33.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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. Insiders sold 18,549 shares of company stock valued at $2,890,168 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:YUM opened at $146.15 on Thursday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $137.33 and a 1 year high of $170.14. The company has a market cap of $39.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.38, a PEG ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 0.55. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $153.46 and its 200-day moving average price is $156.02.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.62 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.58 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $2.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.18 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 24.57% and a net margin of 25.42%.Yum! Brands’s revenue was up 12.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.44 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 6.42 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, June 16th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the restaurant operator to repurchase up to 9.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

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.