Advisors Asset Management Inc. Sells 5,148 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Advisors Asset Management Inc. cut its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 21.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 18,668 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 5,148 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $2,838,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $602,551,000. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in Yum! Brands by 34.3% during the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,789,728 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $413,382,000 after buying an additional 713,167 shares during the period. Amundi boosted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 115.8% during the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 1,311,849 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $197,013,000 after buying an additional 703,891 shares in the last quarter. Magellan Asset Management Ltd grew its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 35.9% in the 2nd quarter. Magellan Asset Management Ltd now owns 2,306,932 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $341,841,000 after buying an additional 609,223 shares during the period. Finally, Compass Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 31,860.2% in the 3rd quarter. Compass Wealth Management LLC now owns 450,000 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $68,400,000 after buying an additional 448,592 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 276 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $153.17, for a total transaction of $42,274.92. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Aaron Powell sold 12,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief executive officer owned 14,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,365,096. This trade represents a 45.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders sold 36,608 shares of company stock valued at $5,607,456. Company insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

YUM has been the subject of several research reports. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $165.00 to $176.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. Barclays set a $185.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $165.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a 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. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Fourteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $174.29.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

NYSE YUM opened at $160.38 on Friday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $137.33 and a one year high of $165.32. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $154.43 and a 200 day moving average of $149.61. The company has a market capitalization of $44.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.90, a PEG ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.66.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.76 by ($0.03). Yum! Brands had a net margin of 18.98% and a negative return on equity of 22.42%. The company had revenue of $2.51 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.45 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.61 EPS. Yum! Brands’s revenue was up 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 6th. Investors of record on Friday, February 20th will be issued a $0.75 dividend. This is an increase from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 20th. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is 54.05%.

Yum! Brands Company 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.