Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Shares Sold by Simplicity Solutions LLC

Simplicity Solutions LLC lowered its stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 1.1% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 13,349 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 151 shares during the quarter. Simplicity Solutions LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $1,744,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Fortitude Family Office LLC acquired a new position in Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter worth $27,000. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC acquired a new position in Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter worth $34,000. Clear Street Markets LLC boosted its position in Yum! Brands by 28,400.0% during the 4th quarter. Clear Street Markets LLC now owns 285 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 284 shares during the period. Legacy Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Yum! Brands during the 3rd quarter worth $40,000. Finally, KB Financial Partners LLC acquired a new position in Yum! Brands during the 2nd quarter worth $41,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have issued reports on YUM. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $135.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Guggenheim upped their price objective on Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $141.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $133.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of Yum! Brands from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $150.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Ten equities research 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 a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $145.00.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Yum! Brands stock opened at $137.80 on Monday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $115.53 and a 1 year high of $143.24. The firm has a market cap of $38.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.10. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $136.30 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $129.78.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.11 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.31 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 21st were issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.61. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.94%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 20th. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is currently 47.94%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,067 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 175,377 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,910,900.18. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,067 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction on Friday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.34, for a total value of $963,514.78. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 175,377 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,910,900.18. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,756 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 16th. The shares were 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 directly owns 57,325 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,406,963.25. 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 ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Company 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.