Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH Has $4.22 Million Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH increased its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 20.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 27,739 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,664 shares during the quarter. Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $4,216,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Brighton Jones LLC increased its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 8.0% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,861 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,055,000 after purchasing an additional 583 shares during the period. National Pension Service boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 419,784 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $62,204,000 after purchasing an additional 3,213 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 200,489 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $29,708,000 after purchasing an additional 1,707 shares during the period. Forsta AP Fonden grew its holdings in Yum! Brands by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 54,700 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $8,105,000 after buying an additional 1,500 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey increased its position in Yum! Brands by 3.7% in the 2nd quarter. Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey now owns 42,299 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $6,268,000 after buying an additional 1,505 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

YUM has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Citigroup upped their price target on Yum! Brands from $170.00 to $171.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Barclays set a $185.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued a “positive” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Evercore restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $190.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Yum! Brands has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $174.50.

Yum! Brands Trading Up 1.2%

YUM opened at $160.30 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $44.31 billion, a PE ratio of 28.88, a P/E/G ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 0.64. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $137.33 and a 1 year high of $169.39. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $158.69 and its 200-day simple moving average is $151.85.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued 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). Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 22.42% and a net margin of 18.98%.The firm had revenue of $2.52 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.45 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.61 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. 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 was paid on Friday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 20th were paid a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 20th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. This is a positive change from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.