Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH Has $48.93 Million Stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH increased its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 321,909 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,113 shares during the quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $48,930,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of YUM. Brighton Jones LLC increased its position in Yum! Brands by 8.0% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,861 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,055,000 after buying an additional 583 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 100.7% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 5,247 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $826,000 after acquiring an additional 2,632 shares in the last quarter. Trexquant Investment LP bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the first quarter valued at approximately $2,805,000. State of Wyoming acquired a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the first quarter worth approximately $80,000. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board lifted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 44.6% in the 1st quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 221,950 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $34,926,000 after purchasing an additional 68,430 shares in the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

NYSE:YUM opened at $152.26 on Tuesday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $122.13 and a 52 week high of $163.30. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $148.76 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $147.35. The firm has a market cap of $42.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.67.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $1.98 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.96 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 21.79% and a net margin of 17.95%.The company’s revenue was up 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.37 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 2nd were paid a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 2nd. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is 55.36%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

YUM has been the topic of several research reports. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $162.00 to $173.00 in a report on Monday, November 17th. Guggenheim decreased their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $167.00 to $160.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 28th. Evercore ISI raised shares of Yum! Brands from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $165.00 to $180.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Yum! Brands from $163.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $165.00 target price on Yum! Brands in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $167.38.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 276 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction on Monday, December 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $153.17, for a total transaction of $42,274.92. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Erika Burkhardt sold 1,269 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $149.37, for a total transaction of $189,550.53. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 64 shares in the company, valued at $9,559.68. This trade represents a 95.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders sold 30,970 shares of company stock valued at $4,624,805. 0.33% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.