Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd Has $8.15 Million Stock Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 9.0% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 53,595 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,446 shares during the quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $8,146,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. GRIMES & Co WEALTH MANAGEMENT LLC lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. GRIMES & Co WEALTH MANAGEMENT LLC now owns 3,197 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $486,000 after purchasing an additional 71 shares during the period. Lakeshore Capital Group Inc. grew its holdings in Yum! Brands by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Lakeshore Capital Group Inc. now owns 4,085 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $621,000 after acquiring an additional 73 shares during the period. Spirepoint Private Client LLC grew its stake in Yum! Brands by 5.4% during the third quarter. Spirepoint Private Client LLC now owns 1,424 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $216,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares during the period. Venturi Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,468 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $375,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Financial Engines Advisors L.L.C. increased its stake in Yum! Brands by 2.2% in the third quarter. Financial Engines Advisors L.L.C. now owns 3,527 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $536,000 after purchasing an additional 76 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:YUM opened at $156.42 on Friday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $137.33 and a 1 year high of $169.39. The company has a market capitalization of $43.24 billion, a PE ratio of 28.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.64. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $159.42 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $152.30.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its 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 firm earned $1.61 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 20th were given a $0.75 dividend. This is a positive change from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 20th. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is presently 54.05%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 284 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.02, for a total value of $47,149.68. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 242 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.02, for a total transaction of $40,176.84. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 65,297 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,840,607.94. This represents a 0.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 14,138 shares of company stock valued at $2,289,990. Company insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

YUM has been the subject of a number of research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Yum! Brands from $165.00 to $176.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $179.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Wednesday, January 7th. Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 6th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands currently 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.