Financial Counselors Inc. Acquires 543 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Financial Counselors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 13.4% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,600 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 543 shares during the quarter. Financial Counselors Inc.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $609,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. grew its holdings in Yum! Brands by 79.8% during the first quarter. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. now owns 187 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 165.7% during the 1st quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 186 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 116 shares during the period. Redmont Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Yum! Brands in the 1st quarter valued at $28,000. Crewe Advisors LLC bought a new position in Yum! Brands in the 1st quarter worth $28,000. Finally, Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. acquired a new position in Yum! Brands during the 1st quarter worth $37,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on YUM. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Yum! Brands from $155.00 to $153.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Yum! Brands from $150.00 to $154.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $143.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, June 13th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $150.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Evercore ISI lowered shares of Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to an “inline” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $160.00 to $145.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $145.00.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

YUM stock opened at $134.81 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $132.57 and a 200 day moving average price of $135.90. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $115.53 and a fifty-two week high of $143.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $37.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.90, a P/E/G ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 1.08.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The restaurant operator reported $1.35 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.33 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.80 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 18.90% and a net margin of 21.96%. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.41 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 27th will be paid a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.99%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 27th. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.52%.

Yum! Brands announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, May 15th that authorizes the company to buyback $2.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the restaurant operator to repurchase up to 5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Weir Mirian M. Graddick sold 1,309 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.40, for a total value of $179,856.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 1,233 shares in the company, valued at approximately $169,414.20. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,061 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.43, for a total transaction of $963,332.23. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 165,630 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,596,900.90. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Weir Mirian M. Graddick sold 1,309 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.40, for a total transaction of $179,856.60. Following the sale, the director now owns 1,233 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $169,414.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 101,685 shares of company stock valued at $13,910,094 over the last three months. 0.31% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Yum! Brands

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.