Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM Shares Sold by Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC

Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC cut its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 38.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 16,202 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 9,965 shares during the quarter. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $2,451,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Yum! Brands by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,242,558 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $5,356,869,000 after buying an additional 684,946 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 3.1% in the third quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 16,179,636 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,459,940,000 after acquiring an additional 487,069 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.3% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,131,263 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,945,791,000 after acquiring an additional 297,641 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 5.6% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,348,846 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $509,025,000 after acquiring an additional 176,221 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 5.5% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,943,187 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $447,364,000 after acquiring an additional 153,459 shares during the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on YUM. Citigroup increased their price objective on Yum! Brands from $170.00 to $171.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 24th. Barclays set a $185.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $165.00 to $176.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets restated a “market perform” rating and set a $165.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $174.50.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Shares of Yum! Brands stock opened at $156.10 on Friday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $137.33 and a one year high of $169.39. The company has a market cap of $43.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.13, a PEG ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.66. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $159.38 and its 200 day moving average price is $153.02.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its 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). Yum! Brands had a net margin of 18.98% and a negative return on equity of 22.42%. The company had revenue of $2.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.45 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.61 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

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

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.