Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM Shares Bought by Markel Group Inc.

Markel Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 8.3% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 245,213 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 18,762 shares during the period. Markel Group Inc. owned about 0.09% of Yum! Brands worth $38,126,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Econ Financial Services Corp raised its holdings in Yum! Brands by 0.4% during the first quarter. Econ Financial Services Corp now owns 15,536 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,416,000 after purchasing an additional 63 shares during the last quarter. Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Yum! Brands by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC now owns 3,292 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $498,000 after purchasing an additional 63 shares during the last quarter. Augustine Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 64 shares in the last quarter. Essex Financial Services Inc. increased its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hilltop Holdings Inc. raised its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Hilltop Holdings Inc. now owns 2,525 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $382,000 after buying an additional 68 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Yum! Brands from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $180.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Tuesday, June 16th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Tuesday, June 16th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $176.12.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Sean Tresvant sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.68, for a total value of $464,040.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 3,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $485,695.20. This trade represents a 48.86% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.42, for a total transaction of $40,105.00. Following the transaction, 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 position. 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. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 12,423 shares of company stock valued at $1,953,721. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 0.7%

Shares of NYSE:YUM traded up $1.19 during trading on Friday, reaching $163.57. The stock had a trading volume of 1,847,140 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,285,954. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $154.51 and a 200-day moving average price of $156.84. The stock has a market cap of $45.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.38, a PEG ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.56. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $137.33 and a fifty-two week high of $170.14.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The restaurant operator reported $1.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $2.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.04 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 20.48% and a negative return on equity of 23.51%. Yum! Brands’s revenue was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.30 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 6.72 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 27th were issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 27th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.8%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.39%.

Yum! Brands declared that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Tuesday, June 16th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the restaurant operator to buy up to 9.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.