Signal Advisors Wealth LLC Makes New Investment in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Signal Advisors Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 2,049 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $304,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. HFM Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in Yum! Brands in the first quarter valued at about $25,000. Greykasell Wealth Strategies Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the first quarter worth about $25,000. Manchester Capital Management LLC raised its position in Yum! Brands by 78.0% in the 1st quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 162 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 71 shares during the last quarter. Wayfinding Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, Financial Gravity Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $38,000. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 263 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $139.92, for a total value of $36,798.96. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,755 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $245,559.60. This represents a 13.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Weir Mirian M. Graddick sold 2,038 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $145.30, for a total value of $296,121.40. Following the sale, the director directly owned 1,233 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $179,154.90. This represents a 62.31% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 36,192 shares of company stock worth $5,346,507. Corporate insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on YUM. Melius began coverage on Yum! Brands in a research report on Monday, July 14th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $200.00 target price on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $155.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $167.00 target price (up previously from $165.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Monday, August 4th. 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 research report on Tuesday, August 5th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic raised Yum! Brands from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $145.00 to $177.00 in a research report on Tuesday, June 10th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and thirteen have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $161.23.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of YUM opened at $145.63 on Friday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $122.13 and a 12-month high of $163.30. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $146.21 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $147.62. The stock has a market cap of $40.42 billion, a PE ratio of 28.72, a PEG ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.73.

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

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 12th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 2nd were issued a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 2nd. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 56.02%.

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.