Pinnacle Associates Ltd. Has $573,000 Stock Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Pinnacle Associates Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 73.5% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 4,389 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 1,860 shares during the period. Pinnacle Associates Ltd.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $573,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. increased its holdings in Yum! Brands by 4.8% during the third quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. now owns 9,774 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,366,000 after buying an additional 450 shares during the last quarter. Integrated Advisors Network LLC bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at about $254,000. Welch Group LLC lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Welch Group LLC now owns 5,140 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $718,000 after purchasing an additional 182 shares during the last quarter. Baker Tilly Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Yum! Brands by 13.7% during the third quarter. Baker Tilly Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,328 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $465,000 after purchasing an additional 401 shares during the period. Finally, J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. increased its position in Yum! Brands by 19.8% during the third quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 3,772 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $527,000 after buying an additional 624 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Yum! Brands news, 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 transaction 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. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Yum! Brands news, Director Weir Mirian M. Graddick sold 1,309 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.40, for a total transaction of $179,856.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 1,233 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $169,414.20. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,069 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.92, for a total transaction of $974,956.48. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 159,132 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,947,485.44. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 101,673 shares of company stock worth $13,918,095. Corporate insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on YUM. Robert W. Baird raised 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $137.00 to $144.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Evercore ISI lowered 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 report on Tuesday, July 16th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $135.00 to $130.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $155.00 to $153.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $146.44.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Yum! Brands stock opened at $132.34 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $134.30 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $134.89. The firm has a market cap of $37.21 billion, a PE ratio of 24.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 1.10. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $122.79 and a one year high of $143.20.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The restaurant operator reported $1.35 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.33 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $1.76 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.41 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 27th were issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.03%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 27th. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.08%.

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.