Fox Run Management L.L.C. Cuts Stock Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Fox Run Management L.L.C. reduced its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 49.1% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,219 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 3,111 shares during the period. Fox Run Management L.L.C.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $489,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.0% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,242,558 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $5,356,869,000 after purchasing an additional 684,946 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Yum! Brands by 2.3% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,131,263 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,945,791,000 after buying an additional 297,641 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Yum! Brands by 2.7% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,216,042 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,217,826,000 after buying an additional 218,046 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Yum! Brands in the 2nd quarter worth about $602,551,000. Finally, Loomis Sayles & Co. L P lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 3,844,806 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $569,723,000 after acquiring an additional 40,757 shares during the period. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

YUM has been the subject of several research reports. Stifel Nicolaus set a $160.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, November 17th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Piper Sandler reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Friday, December 5th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $180.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on Yum! Brands from $170.00 to $171.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $174.50.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Aaron Powell sold 12,000 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 14,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,365,096. This represents a 45.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 242 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction 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 owned 65,297 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,840,607.94. This trade represents a 0.37% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 14,414 shares of company stock worth $2,332,265 over the last three months. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

NYSE:YUM opened at $168.01 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $157.38 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $151.08. The firm has a market capitalization of $46.44 billion, a PE ratio of 30.27, a P/E/G ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.66. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $137.33 and a 52-week high of $169.39.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.73 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.76 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $2.52 billion during 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 firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.61 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. This is an increase from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 20th. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is presently 54.05%.

About Yum! Brands

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.