Focus Partners Wealth Purchases 5,713 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Focus Partners Wealth lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 23.5% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 29,997 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,713 shares during the quarter. Focus Partners Wealth’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $4,720,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 8.0% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,861 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,055,000 after acquiring an additional 583 shares in the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 6.4% in the fourth quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 61,820 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $8,294,000 after acquiring an additional 3,715 shares in the last quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. bought a new stake in Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter worth $1,234,000. Raiffeisen Bank International AG bought a new stake in Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter worth $229,000. Finally, Rafferty Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 12.1% in the fourth quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 25,947 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $3,481,000 after acquiring an additional 2,797 shares in the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 272 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $148.28, for a total value of $40,332.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,755 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $260,231.40. This represents a 13.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,117 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $146.60, for a total value of $1,043,352.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 102,893 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,084,113.80. This trade represents a 6.47% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 29,016 shares of company stock worth $4,271,543. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have commented on the company. TD Cowen dropped their target price on Yum! Brands from $158.00 to $156.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, August 5th. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $167.00 target price (up from $165.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, August 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Yum! Brands from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $167.00 target price on the stock in a report on Wednesday, June 4th. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $164.00 target price (down from $167.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Tuesday, August 5th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic upgraded Yum! Brands from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $145.00 to $177.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 10th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and thirteen have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $161.23.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Yum! Brands stock opened at $149.49 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $41.49 billion, a PE ratio of 29.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.73. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $122.13 and a one year high of $163.30. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $146.56 and a 200 day moving average of $147.92.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.44 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by ($0.02). Yum! Brands had a net margin of 18.11% and a negative return on equity of 21.01%. The company had revenue of $1.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.94 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.35 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 12th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 2nd were paid a $0.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 2nd. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is 56.02%.

About Yum! Brands

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.