Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM Stock Holdings Trimmed by Alps Advisors Inc.

Alps Advisors Inc. lowered its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 26.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 25,939 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 9,191 shares during the quarter. Alps Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $3,943,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Salomon & Ludwin LLC raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 679.2% during the third quarter. Salomon & Ludwin LLC now owns 187 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 163 shares during the period. Westside Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 81.7% in the 3rd quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 198 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 89 shares during the period. CNB Bank grew its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 833.3% during the 3rd quarter. CNB Bank now owns 224 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands during the second quarter worth about $36,000. Finally, Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. bought a new position in Yum! Brands in the third quarter worth about $40,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Aaron Powell sold 12,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $161.44, for a total value of $1,937,280.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 14,650 shares in the company, valued at $2,365,096. This represents a 45.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 24,332 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction on Monday, November 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $149.10, for a total value of $3,627,901.20. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 36,608 shares of company stock valued at $5,607,456 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Shares of YUM opened at $158.80 on Tuesday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $137.33 and a one year high of $163.60. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $153.34 and its 200-day moving average is $149.22. The firm has a market capitalization of $44.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.66.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.73 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.76 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $2.51 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.45 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 22.42% and a net margin of 18.98%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.61 EPS. Analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 6th. Investors of record on Friday, February 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 20th. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.17%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

YUM has been the subject of several recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed a “positive” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Yum! Brands from $170.00 to $171.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Gordon Haskett raised Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 8th. Piper Sandler restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Friday, December 5th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $179.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Wednesday, January 7th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $172.50.

Yum! Brands Profile

Yum! Brands, Inc (NYSE: YUM) is a global quick-service restaurant company that develops, operates and franchises a portfolio of well-known restaurant brands. The company’s principal brands are KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, each focused on distinct product categories—KFC on fried chicken and related menu items, Pizza Hut on pizza and complementary offerings, and Taco Bell on Mexican-inspired quick-service food. Yum! is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky and was formed as Tricon Global Restaurants in 1997 when PepsiCo spun off its restaurant businesses, later adopting the Yum! Brands name.

The company’s operating model centers on brand development, system growth and franchising; a large portion of its restaurants are operated by independent franchisees, and Yum! generates revenue through franchise royalties and fees in addition to sales from company-operated locations.