Texas Permanent School Fund Corp Sells 36,759 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Texas Permanent School Fund Corp decreased its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 65.3% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 19,540 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 36,759 shares during the quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $2,895,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Yum! Brands during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $602,551,000. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 34.3% in the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,789,728 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $413,382,000 after purchasing an additional 713,167 shares in the last quarter. Amundi boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 115.8% in the 2nd 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 during the period. Magellan Asset Management Ltd boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 35.9% in the 2nd quarter. Magellan Asset Management Ltd now owns 2,306,932 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $341,841,000 after buying an additional 609,223 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in Yum! Brands by 2,288.1% in the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 502,267 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $74,426,000 after buying an additional 481,235 shares in the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of YUM opened at $153.69 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $42.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 0.67. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $122.13 and a 1 year high of $163.30. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $147.59 and its 200-day simple moving average is $146.87.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.12. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 17.95% and a negative return on equity of 21.79%. The company had revenue of $1.98 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.96 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.37 earnings per share. Yum! Brands’s quarterly revenue was up 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 12th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 2nd were issued a $0.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 2nd. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 55.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Erika Burkhardt sold 1,269 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $149.37, for a total value of $189,550.53. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 64 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,559.68. The trade was a 95.20% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 24,332 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $149.10, for a total value of $3,627,901.20. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders have sold 30,970 shares of company stock worth $4,624,805. Insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

YUM has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley set a $165.00 price objective on Yum! Brands in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $163.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Yum! Brands from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $165.00 to $180.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $150.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $167.38.

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.