Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Purchases New Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUMFree Report) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 53,777 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $7,215,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in YUM. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.7% in the 2nd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 11,766 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,559,000 after purchasing an additional 308 shares during the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 70.8% during the 2nd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 10,853 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,438,000 after purchasing an additional 4,499 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP purchased a new position in Yum! Brands during the 2nd quarter worth $7,645,000. Ascent Group LLC increased its stake in Yum! Brands by 6.8% in the second quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 2,185 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $289,000 after purchasing an additional 140 shares during the period. Finally, Creative Planning raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 3.1% in the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 94,575 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $12,527,000 after buying an additional 2,803 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on YUM. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Argus upgraded shares of Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 31st. Redburn Atlantic lowered Yum! Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $141.00 price target (down from $153.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Bank of America dropped their price objective on Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five 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 target price of $144.89.

Read Our Latest Stock Report on YUM

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.06, for a total transaction of $522,883.90. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 149,385 shares in the company, valued at $20,474,708.10. This trade represents a 2.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.31% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:YUM opened at $129.15 on Wednesday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $122.13 and a 1 year high of $143.20. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $132.89 and a 200-day simple moving average of $133.60. The stock has a market capitalization of $36.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.14, a PEG ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 1.11.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUMGet Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.41 by ($0.04). Yum! Brands had a net margin of 21.13% and a negative return on equity of 18.93%. The company had revenue of $1.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.90 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.44 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd were given a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 2nd. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 50.09%.

About Yum! Brands

(Free Report)

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.

See Also

Want to see what other hedge funds are holding YUM? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUMFree Report).

Institutional Ownership by Quarter for Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM)

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