Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. Purchases New Stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. bought a new position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 3,357 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $510,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC UT boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 25.8% in the third quarter. Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC UT now owns 2,860 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $435,000 after purchasing an additional 586 shares during the period. Lansforsakringar Fondforvaltning AB publ lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 7.3% in the 3rd quarter. Lansforsakringar Fondforvaltning AB publ now owns 91,490 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $13,906,000 after buying an additional 6,262 shares during the last quarter. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 169.8% in the 3rd quarter. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. now owns 796 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $121,000 after buying an additional 501 shares during the period. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management grew its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 42.7% during the 3rd quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 3,366 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $512,000 after buying an additional 1,007 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands during the third quarter worth about $203,000. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 1,612 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $164.63, for a total value of $265,383.56. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Aaron Powell sold 12,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $161.44, for a total transaction of $1,937,280.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 14,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,365,096. The trade was a 45.03% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 14,414 shares of company stock valued at $2,332,265. Insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Trading Up 1.4%

Shares of Yum! Brands stock opened at $168.01 on Friday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $137.33 and a 1 year high of $169.39. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $157.38 and a 200 day moving average price of $151.02. The company has a market cap of $46.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.27, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.66.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.61 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 20th will be paid a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 20th. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 54.05%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently commented on YUM. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Yum! Brands from $165.00 to $176.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. Citigroup increased their target price on Yum! Brands from $170.00 to $171.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $179.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, January 7th. Piper Sandler restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Friday, December 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $174.50.

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.