Federated Hermes Inc. Raises Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Federated Hermes Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 29.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 47,628 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 10,788 shares during the quarter. Federated Hermes Inc.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $6,309,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 19.3% in the second quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. now owns 8,225 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,090,000 after purchasing an additional 1,330 shares during the last quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 43.6% in the 2nd quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 270 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 82 shares during the last quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. raised its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 4.8% during the 2nd quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 11,332 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,501,000 after buying an additional 517 shares in the last quarter. Achmea Investment Management B.V. grew its position in Yum! Brands by 24.7% in the second quarter. Achmea Investment Management B.V. now owns 11,743 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,555,000 after acquiring an additional 2,325 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Forsta AP Fonden increased its stake in Yum! Brands by 23.5% in the second quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 98,400 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $13,034,000 after acquiring an additional 18,700 shares during the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Yum! Brands from $137.00 to $144.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on Yum! Brands from $135.00 to $130.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target 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. Evercore ISI cut shares of Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to an “inline” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $160.00 to $145.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $150.00 to $154.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $145.25.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

NYSE YUM opened at $130.60 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $36.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.06 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 stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $133.29 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $135.65.

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

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 27th were given a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.05%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 27th. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.52%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,005 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.43, for a total transaction of $941,682.15. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 155,883 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,955,351.69. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,005 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.43, for a total transaction of $941,682.15. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 155,883 shares in the company, valued at $20,955,351.69. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Weir Mirian M. Graddick sold 1,309 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.40, for a total value of $179,856.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 1,233 shares in the company, valued at $169,414.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 101,629 shares of company stock valued at $13,888,443 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

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.