Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM Shares Sold by Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc.

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. cut its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 4.8% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 666,217 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 33,606 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $103,583,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Econ Financial Services Corp raised its stake in Yum! Brands by 0.4% in the first quarter. Econ Financial Services Corp now owns 15,536 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,416,000 after buying an additional 63 shares in the last quarter. Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC now owns 3,292 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $498,000 after purchasing an additional 63 shares during the last quarter. Augustine Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Augustine Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,287 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $497,000 after purchasing an additional 64 shares in the last quarter. Essex Financial Services Inc. increased its stake in Yum! Brands by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Essex Financial Services Inc. now owns 6,667 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,009,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hilltop Holdings Inc. raised its holdings in Yum! Brands by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Hilltop Holdings Inc. now owns 2,525 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $382,000 after purchasing an additional 68 shares in the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

In other news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 277 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.42, for a total transaction of $44,436.34. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 483 shares in the company, valued at $77,482.86. This represents a 36.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 250 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.42, for a total value of $40,105.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 64,032 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,272,013.44. This represents a 0.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 12,423 shares of company stock worth $1,953,721 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

YUM has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Royal Bank Of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $165.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, April 20th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Yum! Brands from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Tuesday, June 16th. Finally, TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Tuesday, June 16th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $176.12.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 0.7%

NYSE:YUM traded up $1.19 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $163.57. 1,847,140 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,285,954. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $137.33 and a 1-year high of $170.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $45.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.38, a P/E/G ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a 50-day moving average of $154.51 and a 200 day moving average of $156.84.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The restaurant operator reported $1.50 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by $0.11. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 20.48% and a negative return on equity of 23.51%. The company had revenue of $2.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.04 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.30 earnings per share. Yum! Brands’s quarterly revenue was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 6.72 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands announced that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Tuesday, June 16th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the restaurant operator to buy up to 9.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.39%.

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.