Farther Finance Advisors LLC Increases Stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 70.6% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,015 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 1,248 shares during the quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $479,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC raised its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC now owns 2,664 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $357,000 after acquiring an additional 69 shares in the last quarter. OLD Point Trust & Financial Services N A raised its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. OLD Point Trust & Financial Services N A now owns 15,357 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,060,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC raised its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 6,605 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $886,000 after acquiring an additional 71 shares in the last quarter. Investment Partners LTD. raised its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Investment Partners LTD. now owns 3,231 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $433,000 after acquiring an additional 72 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lakeshore Capital Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.1% during the 1st quarter. Lakeshore Capital Group Inc. now owns 3,614 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $569,000 after acquiring an additional 74 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Yum! Brands stock opened at $143.88 on Monday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $122.13 and a 1-year high of $163.30. The company has a market cap of $39.99 billion, a PE ratio of 27.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.74. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $145.61 and its 200 day moving average price is $143.35.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.29 by $0.01. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 20.33% and a net margin of 19.68%. The firm had revenue of $1.79 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.85 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.15 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 6th. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 27th were paid a $0.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 27th. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.97%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 56.57%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on YUM shares. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on Yum! Brands from $176.00 to $174.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Barclays raised their target price on Yum! Brands from $163.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Yum! Brands from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $167.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, June 4th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $185.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic raised Yum! Brands from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $145.00 to $177.00 in a research report on Tuesday, June 10th. Fourteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $158.24.

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 268 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $145.97, for a total transaction of $39,119.96. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,755 shares in the company, valued at approximately $256,177.35. The trade was a 13.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,063 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $145.57, for a total value of $1,028,160.91. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 157,893 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,984,484.01. The trade was a 4.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 12,470 shares of company stock worth $1,821,172 over the last three months. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.