GF Fund Management CO. LTD. Lowers Stock Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

GF Fund Management CO. LTD. cut its holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 88.4% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 637 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 4,862 shares during the quarter. GF Fund Management CO. LTD.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $97,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Salomon & Ludwin LLC grew its holdings in Yum! Brands by 679.2% in 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. grew its stake 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 worth $30,000 after buying an additional 89 shares during the last quarter. CNB Bank grew its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 833.3% in the 3rd quarter. CNB Bank now owns 224 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. bought a new position in Yum! Brands during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Finally, Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. purchased a new position in Yum! Brands during the third quarter valued at $40,000. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 1.8%

Shares of NYSE YUM opened at $160.38 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $154.79 and its 200-day moving average price is $149.74. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $137.33 and a 52-week high of $165.32. The company has a market cap of $44.53 billion, a PE ratio of 28.90, a PEG ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.66.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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). 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 last year, the company earned $1.61 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 20th. This is an increase from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.9%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 51.17%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

YUM has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $179.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, January 7th. TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Oppenheimer lowered shares of Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 6th. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $170.00 to $171.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Fourteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $174.29.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Aaron Powell sold 12,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 5th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,365,096. This trade represents a 45.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 276 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $153.17, for a total transaction of $42,274.92. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About Yum! Brands

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.