PensionDanmark Pensionsforsikringsaktieselskab Acquires 5,300 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

PensionDanmark Pensionsforsikringsaktieselskab lifted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 11.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 52,992 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 5,300 shares during the quarter. PensionDanmark Pensionsforsikringsaktieselskab’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $8,471,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Steph & Co. boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 107.5% in the first quarter. Steph & Co. now owns 166 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 86 shares during the last quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the 1st quarter valued at $28,000. Wiser Advisor Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the 3rd quarter worth $28,000. Finally, State of Wyoming acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the first quarter worth $30,000. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

YUM has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Weiss Ratings downgraded Yum! Brands from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 28th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Yum! Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $180.00 to $185.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Yum! Brands from $170.00 to $160.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $174.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $174.31.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In related news, VP David Eric Russell sold 7,961 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $153.15, for a total transaction of $1,219,227.15. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 11,960 shares in the company, valued at $1,831,674. This trade represents a 39.96% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Aaron Powell sold 6,001 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.42, for a total transaction of $962,680.42. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 12,003 shares in the company, valued at $1,925,521.26. This represents a 33.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 20,386 shares of company stock valued at $3,169,392. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Yum! Brands Trading Down 1.1%

NYSE:YUM opened at $150.60 on Friday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $137.33 and a 1 year high of $170.14. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $153.78 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $156.43. The stock has a market cap of $41.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.94, a PEG ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 0.55.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.62 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.58 by $0.04. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 24.57% and a net margin of 25.42%.The company had revenue of $2.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.18 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.44 earnings per share. Yum! Brands’s revenue was up 12.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 6.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 27th were issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 27th. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 37.74%.

Yum! Brands announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, June 16th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the restaurant operator to repurchase up to 9.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.