Creative Planning Raises Stock Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Creative Planning boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 3.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 94,575 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 2,803 shares during the quarter. Creative Planning’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $12,527,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in YUM. Norden Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the 1st quarter worth approximately $3,415,000. Leo Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter worth $268,000. Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 3.4% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 3,164,159 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $419,123,000 after buying an additional 104,328 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the 2nd quarter valued at $7,645,000. Finally, Syon Capital LLC lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Syon Capital LLC now owns 3,342 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $437,000 after acquiring an additional 96 shares in the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

YUM has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Evercore ISI lowered shares of Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to an “inline” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $160.00 to $145.00 in a research note 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 on the stock in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $150.00 to $154.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, June 13th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $150.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Yum! Brands from $137.00 to $144.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $145.25.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 0.3 %

YUM stock opened at $139.24 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $39.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.69, a PEG ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 1.08. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $115.53 and a fifty-two week high of $143.20. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $134.45 and a 200 day moving average price of $135.37.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its 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. The business had revenue of $1.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.80 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 21.96% and a negative return on equity of 18.90%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.41 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.61 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 27th were given a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 27th. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 47.52%.

Insider Activity

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,005 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.43, for a total transaction of $941,682.15. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 155,883 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,955,351.69. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,005 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.43, for a total transaction of $941,682.15. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 155,883 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,955,351.69. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Weir Mirian M. Graddick sold 1,309 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 19th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $169,414.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 101,629 shares of company stock valued at $13,888,443. 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.