Alpha Paradigm Partners LLC Buys Shares of 2,757 Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Alpha Paradigm Partners LLC bought a new stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM – Get Rating) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 2,757 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $293,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Balyasny Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 24.6% in the third quarter. Balyasny Asset Management LLC now owns 335,628 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $35,691,000 after acquiring an additional 66,172 shares in the last quarter. Capstone Financial Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the third quarter worth $238,000. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 9.1% in the third quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,581 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $487,000 after buying an additional 381 shares during the last quarter. Neo Ivy Capital Management purchased a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the third quarter worth $78,000. Finally, State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 0.5% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,634,511 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,237,214,000 after buying an additional 57,308 shares during the last quarter. 77.54% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have issued reports on YUM. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $137.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 9th. Guggenheim decreased their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 8th. Cowen raised their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $130.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, December 5th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 18th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $137.00 to $142.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 9th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $145.81.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 4,259 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.52, for a total value of $547,366.68. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 31,715 shares in the company, valued at $4,076,011.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 3,925 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.00, for a total transaction of $510,250.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 14,393 shares in the company, valued at $1,871,090. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 4,259 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.52, for a total transaction of $547,366.68. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 31,715 shares in the company, valued at $4,076,011.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

YUM opened at $126.70 on Wednesday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $103.96 and a fifty-two week high of $133.77. The company has a fifty day moving average of $128.88 and a two-hundred day moving average of $122.53. The stock has a market capitalization of $35.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.79, a PEG ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 0.98.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM – Get Rating) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 8th. The restaurant operator reported $1.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.26 by $0.05. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 19.37% and a negative return on equity of 15.16%. The business had revenue of $2.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.92 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.02 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 10th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 22nd were given a $0.605 dividend. This is a positive change from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 21st. This represents a $2.42 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.91%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 53.07%.

Yum! Brands Profile

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Yum! Brands, Inc operates as a service restaurant company. The firm engages in the development, operation, franchise, and licenses of a system of restaurants. It operates through the following segments: KFC Division, Pizza Hut Division, Taco Bell Division, and Habit Burger Grill Division. The KFC Division segment consists of all operations of the KFC concept.