Christopher Lee Turner Sells 242 Shares of Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) Stock

Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 242 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 1.4%

NYSE:YUM opened at $168.01 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $157.38 and its 200 day simple moving average is $151.02. The stock has a market cap of $46.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.66. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $137.33 and a twelve month high of $169.39.

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

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 20th will be given a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 20th. This is a positive change from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is presently 54.05%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Yum! Brands

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank bought a new position in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter worth about $706,799,000. Capital International Investors raised its holdings in Yum! Brands by 20.0% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 19,419,826 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,938,139,000 after buying an additional 3,240,190 shares during the last quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. purchased a new position in Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter worth about $272,794,000. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 42.2% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,183,964 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $632,950,000 after buying an additional 1,240,777 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $168,604,000. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently commented on YUM. Stifel Nicolaus set a $160.00 target price on Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, November 17th. Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $180.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Oppenheimer cut shares of Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 6th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Friday, December 5th. Finally, TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $180.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $174.50.

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.