Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM Shares Bought by American Century Companies Inc.

American Century Companies Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 20.3% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 111,989 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 18,879 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $17,022,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. GRIMES & Co WEALTH MANAGEMENT LLC increased its stake in Yum! Brands by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. GRIMES & Co WEALTH MANAGEMENT LLC now owns 3,197 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $486,000 after buying an additional 71 shares during the period. Lakeshore Capital Group Inc. boosted its position in Yum! Brands by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Lakeshore Capital Group Inc. now owns 4,085 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $621,000 after buying an additional 73 shares during the period. Spirepoint Private Client LLC grew its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 5.4% in the third quarter. Spirepoint Private Client LLC now owns 1,424 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $216,000 after acquiring an additional 73 shares in the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 3.1% in the third quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,468 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $375,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Beaumont Financial Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 5.5% during the third quarter. Beaumont Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,495 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $227,000 after acquiring an additional 78 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Barclays set a $185.00 target price on Yum! Brands and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 24th. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $180.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Gordon Haskett upgraded shares of Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 8th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $174.50.

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 242 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.02, for a total value of $40,176.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 65,297 shares in the company, valued at $10,840,607.94. This represents a 0.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 284 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.02, for a total value of $47,149.68. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 14,138 shares of company stock valued at $2,289,990 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE YUM opened at $159.28 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $158.25 and its 200-day simple moving average is $151.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $44.03 billion, a PE ratio of 28.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.64. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $137.33 and a fifty-two week high of $169.39.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced 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). Yum! Brands had a net margin of 18.98% and a negative return on equity of 22.42%. The business had revenue of $2.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.45 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.61 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side 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 declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 6th. Investors of record on Friday, February 20th were given a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 20th. 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.