Alhambra Investment Management LLC Sells 187 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Alhambra Investment Management LLC reduced its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 3.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,889 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 187 shares during the quarter. Alhambra Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $639,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. raised its stake in Yum! Brands by 16.8% in the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 24,692,484 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $3,421,144,000 after buying an additional 3,549,709 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 4.6% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,490,727 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,592,040,000 after purchasing an additional 507,054 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Yum! Brands by 1.5% during the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,947,399 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $784,673,000 after purchasing an additional 90,152 shares in the last quarter. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 3.8% in the third quarter. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP now owns 5,766,650 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $720,485,000 after buying an additional 210,238 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 19.6% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 5,507,237 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $652,773,000 after buying an additional 901,181 shares during the period. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on YUM shares. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “hold” rating and issued a $135.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded Yum! Brands from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $150.00 to $135.00 in a report on Thursday, January 11th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $144.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $133.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $164.00 to $166.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 8th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $145.00.

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

In other news, VP David Eric Russell sold 9,919 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction on Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.63, for a total value of $1,285,799.97. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 18,661 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,419,025.43. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, VP David Eric Russell sold 9,919 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.63, for a total value of $1,285,799.97. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 18,661 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,419,025.43. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,067 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.34, for a total transaction of $963,514.78. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 175,377 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,910,900.18. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 20,742 shares of company stock valued at $2,734,628 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE YUM opened at $134.79 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $134.20 and a 200-day simple moving average of $128.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $37.92 billion, a PE ratio of 24.11, a PEG ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.10. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $115.53 and a twelve month high of $143.24.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The restaurant operator reported $1.26 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.39 by ($0.13). The business had revenue of $2.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.11 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 17.76% and a net margin of 22.57%. Yum! Brands’s quarterly revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.31 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.72 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 8th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 21st were paid a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 20th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.99%. This is a positive change from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.61. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.94%.

About Yum! Brands

Yum! Brands, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, develops, operates, and franchises quick service restaurants worldwide. The company operates through the KFC Division, the Taco Bell Division, the Pizza Hut Division, and the Habit Burger Grill Division segments. It also operates restaurants under the KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and The Habit Burger Grill brands, which specialize in chicken, pizza, made-to-order chargrilled burgers, sandwiches, Mexican-style food categories, and other food products.