Delta Global Management LP Takes $624,000 Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Delta Global Management LP bought a new position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm bought 4,011 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $624,000.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp grew its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 135.7% during the first quarter. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp now owns 24,020 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $3,735,000 after buying an additional 13,830 shares during the last quarter. Lombard Odier Asset Management Switzerland SA raised its stake in Yum! Brands by 21.9% in the 1st quarter. Lombard Odier Asset Management Switzerland SA now owns 35,110 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $5,459,000 after acquiring an additional 6,300 shares during the last quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC raised its stake in Yum! Brands by 30.3% in the 1st quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC now owns 14,408 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,240,000 after acquiring an additional 3,347 shares during the last quarter. Entropy Technologies LP lifted its position in Yum! Brands by 25.4% during the 1st quarter. Entropy Technologies LP now owns 37,926 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $5,897,000 after acquiring an additional 7,676 shares during the period. Finally, Bridgewater Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Yum! Brands by 3.5% during the 1st quarter. Bridgewater Advisors Inc. now owns 2,108 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $311,000 after purchasing an additional 72 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on YUM. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $165.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, April 20th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $168.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, May 4th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Yum! Brands from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Tuesday, June 16th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $177.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $174.81.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Aaron Powell sold 6,001 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.42, for a total value of $962,680.42. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 12,003 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,925,521.26. This represents a 33.33% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 270 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $148.14, for a total transaction of $39,997.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 64,282 shares in the company, valued at $9,522,735.48. The trade was a 0.42% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 12,423 shares of company stock valued at $1,953,721 in the last three months. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

NYSE YUM opened at $148.82 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $154.06 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $156.76. The firm has a market capitalization of $41.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.00, a PEG ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 0.56. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $137.33 and a fifty-two week high of $170.14.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The restaurant operator reported $1.50 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by $0.11. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 23.51% and a net margin of 20.48%.The firm had revenue of $2.06 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.04 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.30 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 6.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 27th were issued a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 27th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.0%. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is presently 48.39%.

Yum! Brands declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, June 16th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the restaurant operator to buy up to 9.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

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.