American Century Companies Inc. Buys 1,214 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 1.7% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 71,638 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,214 shares during the quarter. American Century Companies Inc.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $9,489,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. grew its stake in Yum! Brands by 79.8% in the 1st quarter. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. now owns 187 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 83 shares in the last quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Yum! Brands by 165.7% in the 1st quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 186 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 116 shares in the last quarter. Redmont Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the first quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Crewe Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the first quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Finally, Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 3,088.9% during the second quarter. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC now owns 287 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 278 shares in the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on YUM shares. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday, June 13th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $150.00 price objective on the stock. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $155.00 to $153.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective 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. Evercore ISI downgraded shares of Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to an “inline” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $160.00 to $145.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $150.00 to $154.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $145.25.

Yum! Brands Trading Down 1.1 %

NYSE YUM opened at $129.71 on Monday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $133.29 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $135.50. The stock has a market cap of $36.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.00, a P/E/G ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 1.08. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $115.53 and a 12-month high of $143.20.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The restaurant operator reported $1.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.33 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $1.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.80 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 21.96% and a negative return on equity of 18.90%. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.41 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast 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. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 27th were issued a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 27th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.07%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.52%.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In other news, CEO Sabir Sami sold 71,051 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.16, for a total value of $9,745,355.16. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 68 shares in the company, valued at $9,326.88. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Sabir Sami sold 71,051 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.16, for a total value of $9,745,355.16. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 68 shares in the company, valued at $9,326.88. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Scott Catlett sold 8,234 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 owns 29,159 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,017,818.61. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 101,629 shares of company stock worth $13,888,443 over the last 90 days. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.