Stephens Inc. AR Decreases Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Stephens Inc. AR lowered its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 1.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 12,332 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 194 shares during the quarter. Stephens Inc. AR’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $1,723,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Norden Group LLC acquired a new position in Yum! Brands during the first quarter worth about $243,000. Private Advisor Group LLC lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 16,986 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,355,000 after buying an additional 192 shares in the last quarter. C2P Capital Advisory Group LLC d.b.a. Prosperity Capital Advisors acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands during the 1st quarter valued at $291,000. Larson Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 78.1% in the first quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 3,234 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $448,000 after acquiring an additional 1,418 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mediolanum International Funds Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the first quarter valued at $2,039,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of YUM stock opened at $132.76 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $37.33 billion, a PE ratio of 24.32, a P/E/G ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 1.10. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $134.26 and its 200-day simple moving average is $134.84. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $123.60 and a 52 week high of $143.20.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.80 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.41 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

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 yield of 2.02%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 27th. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.08%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently commented on YUM shares. TD Cowen cut Yum! Brands from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $156.00 to $145.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Evercore ISI downgraded shares of Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to an “inline” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $160.00 to $145.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased 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 report on Monday, July 22nd. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Yum! Brands from $155.00 to $153.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Yum! Brands from $137.00 to $144.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $146.44.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,005 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.43, for a total transaction of $941,682.15. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 152,634 shares in the company, valued at $20,518,588.62. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, insider Scott Catlett sold 8,234 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.79, for a total value of $1,134,562.86. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 29,159 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,017,818.61. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,005 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.43, for a total value of $941,682.15. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 152,634 shares in the company, valued at $20,518,588.62. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 101,673 shares of company stock worth $13,918,095 in the last 90 days. 0.31% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About Yum! Brands

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.