Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC Purchases 107,415 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 84.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 235,038 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 107,415 shares during the quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC owned approximately 0.08% of Yum! Brands worth $35,721,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wiser Advisor Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the third quarter valued at about $28,000. Salomon & Ludwin LLC grew its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 679.2% in the third quarter. Salomon & Ludwin LLC now owns 187 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 163 shares during the last quarter. Community Bank N.A. bought a new position in Yum! Brands during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 81.7% in the 3rd quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 198 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 89 shares during the period. Finally, CNB Bank lifted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 833.3% in the 3rd quarter. CNB Bank now owns 224 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on YUM. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating and set a $190.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Friday, February 13th. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $179.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Wednesday, January 7th. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $180.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Barclays set a $185.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $180.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $174.50.

Yum! Brands Trading Up 1.3%

Shares of NYSE:YUM opened at $158.46 on Tuesday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $137.33 and a 12-month high of $169.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $43.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.55, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.64. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $159.45 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $152.51.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.73 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.76 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $2.52 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.45 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 18.98% and a negative return on equity of 22.42%. Yum! Brands’s revenue was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.61 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 20th were issued a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 20th. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 54.05%.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In other news, CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 242 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.02, for a total value of $40,176.84. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 65,297 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,840,607.94. This represents a 0.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Aaron Powell sold 12,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $161.44, for a total transaction of $1,937,280.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 14,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,365,096. This trade represents a 45.03% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 14,138 shares of company stock worth $2,289,990. Corporate insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

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.