Xponance Inc. Sells 12,786 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Xponance Inc. cut its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 20.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 48,871 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 12,786 shares during the quarter. Xponance Inc.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $6,473,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 24.0% in the first 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 in the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 3,470,883 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 10.2% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 14,669,356 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,033,906,000 after acquiring an additional 1,362,813 shares in the last quarter. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 2.1% in the first quarter. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP now owns 5,939,663 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $823,534,000 after acquiring an additional 121,285 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 36.6% in the first quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 2,174,526 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $301,498,000 after acquiring an additional 582,267 shares in the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on YUM shares. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday, June 13th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $150.00 price target for the company. Evercore ISI cut 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 note on Tuesday, July 16th. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating and issued a $156.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Yum! Brands from $150.00 to $154.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on Yum! Brands from $135.00 to $130.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $145.25.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

NYSE:YUM opened at $133.85 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $133.44 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $135.39. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $115.53 and a 52-week high of $143.20. The firm has a market capitalization of $37.63 billion, a PE ratio of 23.73, a P/E/G ratio of 2.00 and a beta of 1.08.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its quarterly earnings results 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. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 18.90% and a net margin of 21.96%. The business had revenue of $1.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.80 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.41 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced 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 2.00%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 27th. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.52%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,005 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.43, for a total transaction of $941,682.15. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 155,883 shares in the company, valued at $20,955,351.69. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,005 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.43, for a total transaction of $941,682.15. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 155,883 shares in the company, valued at $20,955,351.69. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 6,961 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $131.02, for a total value 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 101,629 shares of company stock worth $13,888,443. 0.31% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.