Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC Purchases New Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 1,498 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $201,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Callan Family Office LLC acquired a new position in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter valued at about $571,000. Freestone Capital Holdings LLC acquired a new position in Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter worth approximately $218,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter worth approximately $59,289,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter worth approximately $14,403,000. Finally, Atria Investments Inc increased its position in Yum! Brands by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 24,937 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $3,346,000 after purchasing an additional 92 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Barclays boosted their target price on Yum! Brands from $162.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. TD Securities boosted their target price on Yum! Brands from $151.00 to $164.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Yum! Brands from $130.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Cowen reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Fifteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $150.42.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Shares of YUM opened at $154.41 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $140.18 and a two-hundred day moving average of $136.79. The company has a market capitalization of $43.10 billion, a PE ratio of 29.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $122.13 and a fifty-two week high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 21st were issued a $0.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 21st. This is an increase from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.84%. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is 54.41%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 8,638 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.36, for a total value of $1,367,913.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 2,970 shares in the company, valued at approximately $470,329.20. The trade was a 74.41 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.06, for a total value of $522,883.90. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 149,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,474,708.10. The trade was a 2.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 48,654 shares of company stock worth $7,659,176. Insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

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.