Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM Stock Holdings Cut by Fifth Third Bancorp

Fifth Third Bancorp lessened its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 2.6% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 215,771 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 5,822 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp owned approximately 0.08% of Yum! Brands worth $32,797,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 34,557,612 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $5,120,747,000 after acquiring an additional 448,393 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.3% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,131,263 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,945,791,000 after purchasing an additional 297,641 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 2.7% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,216,042 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,217,826,000 after purchasing an additional 218,046 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Yum! Brands during the second quarter worth approximately $602,551,000. Finally, Loomis Sayles & Co. L P grew its position in Yum! Brands by 1.1% in the second quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 3,844,806 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $569,723,000 after buying an additional 40,757 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Aaron Powell sold 12,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer owned 14,650 shares in the company, valued at $2,365,096. The trade was a 45.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 276 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $153.17, for a total value of $42,274.92. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $177.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. Evercore raised Yum! Brands from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $165.00 to $180.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $180.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $180.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Fourteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $174.29.

Yum! Brands Trading Down 1.8%

Shares of Yum! Brands stock opened at $160.38 on Tuesday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $137.33 and a 1 year high of $165.32. The company has a market cap of $44.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.90, a P/E/G ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.66. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $154.79 and a 200 day moving average price of $149.74.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.73 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.76 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $2.51 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.45 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 18.98% and a negative return on equity of 22.42%. Yum! Brands’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.61 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast 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. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. This is an increase from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 20th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.17%.

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.