Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) CEO Sells $962,680.42 in Stock

Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) CEO Aaron Powell sold 6,001 shares of the business’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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 12,003 shares in the company, valued at $1,925,521.26. This trade represents a 33.33% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of NYSE:YUM opened at $164.20 on Friday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $137.33 and a 52-week high of $169.39. The stock has a market cap of $45.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.48, a PEG ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.56. The business has a fifty day moving average of $153.86 and a two-hundred day moving average of $156.43.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The restaurant operator reported $1.50 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.39 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $2.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.04 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 23.51% and a net margin of 20.48%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.30 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 6.75 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 27th were paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 27th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.8%. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is 48.39%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. BMO Capital Markets reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $168.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $177.00 price objective on Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $165.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on Yum! Brands from $174.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $176.12.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Yum! Brands

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $706,799,000. Capital International Investors lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 20.0% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 19,419,826 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,938,139,000 after purchasing an additional 3,240,190 shares in the last quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. purchased a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter worth $272,794,000. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 42.2% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,183,964 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $632,950,000 after buying an additional 1,240,777 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter valued at $168,604,000. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.