Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM Stock Holdings Lifted by Envestnet Asset Management Inc.

Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 267,162 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 11,532 shares during the quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. owned approximately 0.10% of Yum! Brands worth $40,609,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

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

Key Yum! Brands News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Significant decline in short interest — Short interest fell about 18.8% to ~7.01M shares as of Jan. 30, leaving only ~2.5% of shares sold short and a days-to-cover of ~3.1. Less short exposure can reduce selling pressure and increases the chance of short-covering rallies.
• Positive Sentiment: Company doubling down on restaurant technology as a growth lever — Yum highlights tech investments as central to its 2026 growth strategy, which could boost margins, digital orders and unit economics over time. Yum! Brands Makes Restaurant Tech Central to Its 2026 Growth Strategy
• Positive Sentiment: Marketing/brand lift for Pizza Hut — Seasonal/high-visibility promotion: Pizza Hut partnered with Backstreet Boys members to relaunch the heart-shaped pizza for Valentine’s Day, a consumer-facing campaign that can drive short-term traffic and sales. PIZZA HUT PARTNERS WITH BACKSTREET BOYS’ NICK CARTER AND HOWIE DOROUGH
• Neutral Sentiment: Some markets insulated from closures — Local reporting notes Hawaii Pizza Hut locations remain unaffected by the national wave of closures, which tempers regional risk but doesn’t change the broader footprint adjustment. Pizza Hut locations in Hawaii remain unaffected by closures across the country
• Negative Sentiment: Closure of roughly 250 Pizza Hut restaurants — Yum is closing about 250 underperforming Pizza Hut units, a meaningful contraction that signals execution issues at the brand and will weigh on near-term revenue and franchise economics. Yum closing about 250 Pizza Hut restaurants
• Negative Sentiment: Critical press on Pizza Hut strategy and execution — Coverage framing “the problem with Pizza Hut” and deep-dive pieces about KFC/Taco Bell strategy shifts raise investor concern that parts of the portfolio need more turnaround work. The problem with Pizza Hut
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst/commentary headwinds — Recent commentary includes pieces calling YUM “overbought” and reporting a rating downgrade tied to execution concerns; that negative sentiment can pressure the multiple even while fundamentals are mixed. Yum! Brands: Stock Is Overbought, Valuation Is Fully Cooked

Yum! Brands Trading Down 0.0%

NYSE:YUM opened at $158.86 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $44.11 billion, a PE ratio of 28.62, a PEG ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 0.66. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $137.33 and a 1 year high of $163.60. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $153.56 and its 200 day simple moving average is $149.31.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.76 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $2.51 billion for 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 firm’s revenue was up 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.61 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 20th will be given a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 20th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. This is an increase from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 51.17%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Evercore raised Yum! Brands from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $165.00 to $180.00 in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $180.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated a “positive” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $170.00 to $171.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $172.50.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 276 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $153.17, for a total value of $42,274.92. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 24,332 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $149.10, for a total transaction of $3,627,901.20. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 36,608 shares of company stock worth $5,607,456 over the last three months. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.