Retirement Systems of Alabama Raises Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Retirement Systems of Alabama boosted its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 19.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 347,395 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 57,112 shares during the period. Retirement Systems of Alabama owned approximately 0.13% of Yum! Brands worth $52,804,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in YUM. Brighton Jones LLC grew its stake in Yum! Brands by 8.0% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,861 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,055,000 after purchasing an additional 583 shares in the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 7.0% in the 2nd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 3,226 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $478,000 after buying an additional 211 shares during the period. TD Private Client Wealth LLC grew its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 19.6% during the second quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 2,502 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $371,000 after buying an additional 410 shares in the last quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.2% during the second quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,700 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,734,000 after buying an additional 135 shares during the period. Finally, Dakota Wealth Management raised its holdings in Yum! Brands by 19.6% in the second quarter. Dakota Wealth Management now owns 8,910 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,320,000 after acquiring an additional 1,461 shares in the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In other news, insider Erika Burkhardt sold 1,269 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $149.37, for a total value of $189,550.53. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 64 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,559.68. This represents a 95.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Aaron Powell sold 2,790 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.48, for a total value of $419,839.20. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 26,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,010,292. This represents a 9.48% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 30,695 shares of company stock worth $4,582,843 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

YUM has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 6th. Guggenheim lowered 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 note on Tuesday, October 28th. Evercore ISI upgraded 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 note on Wednesday, November 5th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $160.00 price objective on Yum! Brands in a research report on Monday, November 17th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Yum! Brands from $165.00 to $176.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $170.30.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Yum! Brands stock opened at $152.98 on Friday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $126.75 and a fifty-two week high of $163.30. The company has a market capitalization of $42.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.82, a PEG ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.67. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $152.04 and a 200-day simple moving average of $148.51.

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

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

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

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.