Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC Acquires 368 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 7.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,598 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 368 shares during the quarter. Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $731,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Trueblood Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $225,000. Westbourne Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter valued at $207,000. Procyon Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC now owns 11,752 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,536,000 after buying an additional 331 shares during the period. Threadgill Financial LLC increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Threadgill Financial LLC now owns 20,776 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,715,000 after acquiring an additional 198 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sandy Cove Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter worth $220,000. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,756 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.21, for a total transaction of $485,312.76. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 57,325 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,406,963.25. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,756 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.21, for a total transaction of $485,312.76. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 57,325 shares in the company, valued at $7,406,963.25. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,067 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.34, for a total transaction of $963,514.78. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 175,377 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,910,900.18. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 20,742 shares of company stock worth $2,734,628 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:YUM opened at $138.65 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $134.62 and its 200 day moving average is $128.87. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $115.53 and a 1 year high of $143.24. The company has a market cap of $39.01 billion, a PE ratio of 24.80, a P/E/G ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 1.10.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The restaurant operator reported $1.26 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.39 by ($0.13). Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 17.76% and a net margin of 22.57%. The firm had revenue of $2.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.11 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.31 earnings per share. Yum! Brands’s revenue for the quarter was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.72 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 8th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 21st were paid a dividend of $0.67 per share. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.61. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 20th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.93%. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is presently 47.94%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

YUM has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Guggenheim raised their target price on Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Oppenheimer upgraded shares of Yum! Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $154.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Friday, January 5th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $146.00 to $144.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $141.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 9th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $164.00 to $166.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 8th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $145.00.

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.