Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Has $3.42 Million Stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans reduced its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 23.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 22,471 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 6,721 shares during the quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans’ holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $3,415,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of YUM. Salomon & Ludwin LLC raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 679.2% in the 3rd quarter. Salomon & Ludwin LLC now owns 187 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 163 shares during the period. CNB Bank grew its holdings in Yum! Brands by 833.3% during the third quarter. CNB Bank now owns 224 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the period. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. acquired a new position in Yum! Brands during the second quarter worth approximately $36,000. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. bought a new stake in Yum! Brands in the third quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Finally, Private Wealth Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Yum! Brands by 219.4% in the second quarter. Private Wealth Asset Management LLC now owns 297 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $44,000 after buying an additional 204 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Key Yum! Brands News

Here are the key news stories impacting Yum! Brands this week:

• Positive Sentiment: TD Cowen reaffirmed a Buy and keeps a $180 price target, citing Taco Bell momentum and potential re-rating after Pizza Hut actions — a bullish analyst signal for the stock. TD Cowen Buy Rating
• Positive Sentiment: Yum’s Byte by Yum AI platform continues to be promoted as a competitive advantage for operators (KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Habit), which could lift unit economics and long-term growth. Byte by Yum AI
• Positive Sentiment: Yum reported double-digit profit growth in Q4 and revenue that beat estimates, demonstrating underlying earnings strength despite some brand-level softness. Q4 Profit Growth
• Neutral Sentiment: The company is conducting a formal review of Pizza Hut, including exploring a possible sale; that could unlock value long-term but also introduces execution and timing uncertainty. Pizza Hut Strategic Review
• Negative Sentiment: Yum announced it will close ~250 underperforming U.S. Pizza Hut locations in H1 2026 — a sign of structural weakness in the chain that may pressure near-term U.S. sales and investor sentiment. Pizza Hut Store Closures
• Negative Sentiment: CEO Aaron Powell sold 12,000 shares (about a 45% cut in his direct holdings) on Feb 5; while insider sales can be for many reasons, large exits by executives often raise investor concern. SEC Form 4 – Powell Sale
• Negative Sentiment: Q4 EPS missed Street estimates ($1.73 vs $1.76) even as revenue beat, highlighting margin or timing pressures that traders may punish near term. Q4 Earnings Call Transcript

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

YUM has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Barclays set a $185.00 price target on Yum! Brands and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Evercore upgraded shares of Yum! Brands from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $165.00 to $180.00 in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $180.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $179.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Wednesday, January 7th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $172.50.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 1.1%

Shares of NYSE:YUM opened at $162.85 on Monday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $137.33 and a 12-month high of $163.60. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $153.17 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $149.13. The firm has a market cap of $45.22 billion, a PE ratio of 29.34, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.66.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its quarterly 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). The company had revenue of $2.51 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.45 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 18.98% and a negative return on equity of 22.42%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.61 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 20th will be issued 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.8%. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is currently 54.05%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 14,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,365,096. The trade was a 45.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 24,332 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $149.10, for a total transaction of $3,627,901.20. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 39,398 shares of company stock worth $6,027,295. Company insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

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.