B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG Decreases Stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG lessened its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 27.9% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 22,056 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 8,550 shares during the quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $3,353,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Salomon & Ludwin LLC grew its position in Yum! Brands by 679.2% during the third quarter. Salomon & Ludwin LLC now owns 187 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 163 shares during the period. Westside Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 81.7% during the 3rd quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 198 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 89 shares during the period. CNB Bank lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 833.3% during the 3rd quarter. CNB Bank now owns 224 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the period. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $36,000. Finally, Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $40,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 284 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.02, for a total value of $47,149.68. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 242 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.02, for a total value of $40,176.84. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 65,297 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,840,607.94. This represents a 0.37% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders sold 14,138 shares of company stock valued at $2,289,990. Company insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Friday, December 5th. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $180.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Citigroup raised their price target on Yum! Brands from $170.00 to $171.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed a “positive” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $165.00 to $176.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $174.50.

Yum! Brands Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of YUM stock opened at $159.83 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $44.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.80, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.64. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $158.11 and a 200 day moving average price of $151.59. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $137.33 and a twelve month high of $169.39.

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 the consensus estimate of $1.76 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $2.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.45 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 22.42% and a net margin of 18.98%.Yum! Brands’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.61 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

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

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.