Bank of Nova Scotia Acquires 128,394 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Bank of Nova Scotia raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 167.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 205,036 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 128,394 shares during the period. Bank of Nova Scotia owned approximately 0.07% of Yum! Brands worth $31,165,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 695,059 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $105,649,000 after buying an additional 8,888 shares during the period. Amundi increased its stake 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 acquiring an additional 703,891 shares during the last quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama raised its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 19.7% in the 3rd quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 347,395 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $52,804,000 after acquiring an additional 57,112 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 34.3% in 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 during the period. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 267,162 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $40,609,000 after acquiring an additional 11,532 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 1,612 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $164.63, for a total value of $265,383.56. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Aaron Powell sold 12,000 shares of the business’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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 14,650 shares in the company, valued at $2,365,096. The trade was a 45.03% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders sold 14,138 shares of company stock worth $2,289,990. 0.33% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on YUM. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, December 29th. TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $190.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Friday, February 13th. Oppenheimer cut shares of Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 6th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus set a $160.00 target price on Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, November 17th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $174.50.

Yum! Brands Trading Up 0.9%

YUM opened at $161.84 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $44.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.16, a P/E/G ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.64. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $137.33 and a 12 month high of $169.39. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $158.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $152.04.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its 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 negative return on equity of 22.42% and a net margin of 18.98%.The firm had revenue of $2.52 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.45 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.61 EPS. Yum! Brands’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict 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 was paid on Friday, March 6th. Investors of record on Friday, February 20th were issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 20th. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is 54.05%.

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.