Meeder Asset Management Inc. Grows Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Meeder Asset Management Inc. increased its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 43.6% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 270 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 82 shares during the period. Meeder Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $36,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in YUM. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Yum! Brands by 24.0% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,012,969 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $4,022,648,000 after acquiring an additional 5,607,517 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 23.7% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 18,121,611 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,512,561,000 after purchasing an additional 3,470,883 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter valued at about $331,831,000. Cantillon Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Yum! Brands during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $200,668,000. Finally, Capital International Investors lifted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 10.2% in the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 14,669,356 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,033,906,000 after buying an additional 1,362,813 shares during the period. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE YUM opened at $133.65 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $133.02 and its 200-day moving average price is $135.75. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $115.53 and a 52-week high of $143.20. The company has a market cap of $37.58 billion, a PE ratio of 23.70, a P/E/G ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 1.08.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The restaurant operator reported $1.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.33 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $1.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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 in the prior year, the firm posted $1.41 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 27th were issued a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 27th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.01%. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is 47.52%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on YUM shares. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on Yum! Brands from $150.00 to $154.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $132.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, June 3rd. Evercore ISI cut shares of Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to an “inline” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $160.00 to $145.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $135.00 to $130.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $155.00 to $153.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $145.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 6,961 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $131.02, for a total transaction of $912,030.22. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 162,381 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,275,158.62. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 6,961 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $131.02, for a total transaction of $912,030.22. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 162,381 shares in the company, valued at $21,275,158.62. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Scott Catlett sold 8,234 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.79, for a total transaction of $1,134,562.86. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 29,159 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,017,818.61. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 94,624 shares of company stock valued at $12,946,761. 0.31% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Yum! Brands Company 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.