343 Shares in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Purchased by Northwest Investment Counselors LLC

Northwest Investment Counselors LLC purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 343 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $48,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter worth approximately $331,831,000. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 4.9% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 14,650,728 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,914,257,000 after acquiring an additional 678,659 shares during the last quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. grew its position in Yum! Brands by 107.5% during the fourth quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 1,254,446 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $163,906,000 after acquiring an additional 649,922 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc increased its stake in Yum! Brands by 55.8% during the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,592,259 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $208,045,000 after acquiring an additional 570,263 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 129.5% in the 3rd quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 769,543 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $96,147,000 after purchasing an additional 434,284 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In other news, Director Paget Leonard Alves sold 6,309 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.19, for a total transaction of $859,222.71. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, Director Paget Leonard Alves sold 6,309 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.19, for a total transaction of $859,222.71. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Scott Catlett sold 5,994 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.50, for a total value of $848,151.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 34,889 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,936,793.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 33,515 shares of company stock worth $4,620,080 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on YUM. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $132.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, June 3rd. Guggenheim lifted their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Yum! Brands from $133.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Argus restated a “hold” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $156.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday, June 13th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $144.33.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Shares of Yum! Brands stock traded down $0.33 during trading on Monday, reaching $133.96. The company had a trading volume of 461,916 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,952,371. The company has a market cap of $37.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 1.08. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $115.53 and a fifty-two week high of $143.20. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $138.04 and its 200-day moving average is $134.90.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The restaurant operator reported $1.15 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.20 by ($0.05). Yum! Brands had a net margin of 22.92% and a negative return on equity of 18.64%. The firm had revenue of $1.60 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.71 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.06 earnings per share. Yum! Brands’s revenue was down 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase program on Wednesday, May 15th that permits the company to repurchase $2.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the restaurant operator to purchase up to 5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 7th. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 28th were paid a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 24th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.00%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.52%.

Yum! Brands Profile

Yum! Brands, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, develops, operates, and franchises quick service restaurants worldwide. The company operates through the KFC Division, the Taco Bell Division, the Pizza Hut Division, and the Habit Burger Grill Division segments. It also operates restaurants under the KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and The Habit Burger Grill brands, which specialize in chicken, pizza, made-to-order chargrilled burgers, sandwiches, Mexican-style food categories, and other food products.