IFP Advisors Inc Raises Stock Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

IFP Advisors Inc increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 135.3% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 10,506 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,041 shares during the quarter. IFP Advisors Inc’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $1,657,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its holdings 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 valued at $105,649,000 after purchasing an additional 8,888 shares in the last quarter. Amundi boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 115.8% during the second quarter. Amundi now owns 1,311,849 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $197,013,000 after buying an additional 703,891 shares in the last quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama grew its position in Yum! Brands by 19.7% during the third quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 347,395 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $52,804,000 after buying an additional 57,112 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in Yum! Brands by 34.3% in the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,789,728 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $413,382,000 after buying an additional 713,167 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in Yum! Brands by 4.5% in the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 267,162 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $40,609,000 after buying an additional 11,532 shares in the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 284 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.02, for a total value of $47,149.68. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 242 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owned 65,297 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,840,607.94. This represents a 0.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders sold 14,138 shares of company stock worth $2,289,990. Insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

YUM has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Barclays set a $185.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $190.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Friday, February 13th. Oppenheimer downgraded Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 6th. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating and issued a $180.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $179.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, January 7th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $174.50.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

NYSE YUM opened at $156.42 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $43.24 billion, a PE ratio of 28.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.64. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $159.42 and its 200-day simple moving average is $152.35. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $137.33 and a 1-year high of $169.39.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.73 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 analysts’ expectations of $2.45 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.61 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 6th. Investors of record on Friday, February 20th were paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 20th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 54.05%.

Yum! Brands Company 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.