Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC Has $13.04 Million Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC lowered its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 7.6% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 85,809 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 7,039 shares during the quarter. Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $13,043,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 8.0% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,861 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,055,000 after buying an additional 583 shares in the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. increased its holdings in Yum! Brands by 77.5% during the 2nd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 6,727 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $997,000 after purchasing an additional 2,937 shares in the last quarter. Strs Ohio acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the 2nd quarter valued at about $987,000. Sigma Planning Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 5.2% in the second quarter. Sigma Planning Corp now owns 2,574 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $381,000 after purchasing an additional 127 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Crestwood Advisors Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.1% during the second quarter. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC now owns 4,037 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $598,000 after buying an additional 83 shares during the period. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on YUM shares. Stifel Nicolaus set a $160.00 target price on Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, November 17th. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $180.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research 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 reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Friday, December 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $165.00 to $176.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $174.50.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Aaron Powell sold 12,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $161.44, for a total value of $1,937,280.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 14,650 shares in the company, valued at $2,365,096. The trade was a 45.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 242 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.02, for a total transaction of $40,176.84. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 65,297 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,840,607.94. This represents a 0.37% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 14,138 shares of company stock worth $2,289,990 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Yum! Brands stock opened at $158.37 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average is $157.82 and its 200-day moving average is $151.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.78 billion, a PE ratio of 28.54, a P/E/G ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 0.64. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $137.33 and a fifty-two week high of $169.39.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.73 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.76 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $2.52 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.61 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The business 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. This is a positive change from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 20th. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 54.05%.

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.