Cullen Investment Group LTD. Makes New $297,000 Investment in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Cullen Investment Group LTD. purchased a new position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm purchased 2,274 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $297,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Fortitude Family Office LLC bought a new position in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter worth $27,000. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC bought a new position in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter worth $34,000. Clear Street Markets LLC raised its holdings in Yum! Brands by 28,400.0% in the 4th quarter. Clear Street Markets LLC now owns 285 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 284 shares during the period. KB Financial Partners LLC bought a new position in Yum! Brands in the 2nd quarter worth $41,000. Finally, Legacy Financial Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the 3rd quarter worth about $40,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 0.1 %

NYSE:YUM opened at $137.67 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $38.75 billion, a PE ratio of 24.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.10. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $115.53 and a 12 month high of $143.24. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $136.53 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $129.88.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The restaurant operator reported $1.26 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by ($0.13). The firm had revenue of $2.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.11 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 22.57% and a negative return on equity of 17.76%. Yum! Brands’s quarterly revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.31 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 8th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 21st were given a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 20th. This is a positive change from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.61. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.95%. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is 47.94%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $141.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 9th. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of Yum! Brands from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $150.00 to $135.00 in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Oppenheimer upgraded shares of Yum! Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $154.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, January 5th. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “hold” rating and set a $135.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, January 4th. Finally, Guggenheim boosted their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $145.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,067 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.34, for a total transaction of $963,514.78. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 175,377 shares in the company, valued at $23,910,900.18. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,067 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.34, for a total transaction of $963,514.78. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 175,377 shares in the company, valued at $23,910,900.18. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP David Eric Russell sold 9,919 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.63, for a total transaction of $1,285,799.97. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 18,661 shares in the company, valued at $2,419,025.43. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

About Yum! Brands

Yum! Brands, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, develops, operates, and franchises quick service restaurants worldwide. The company operates through the KFC Division, the Taco Bell Division, the Pizza Hut Division, and the Habit Burger Grill Division segments. It also operates restaurants under the KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and The Habit Burger Grill brands, which specialize in chicken, pizza, made-to-order chargrilled burgers, sandwiches, Mexican-style food categories, and other food products.