Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM Shares Bought by Vestcor Inc

Vestcor Inc lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 12.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 62,846 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 7,025 shares during the quarter. Vestcor Inc’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $9,553,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Salomon & Ludwin LLC lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 679.2% during the third quarter. Salomon & Ludwin LLC now owns 187 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 163 shares during the period. Westside Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Yum! Brands by 81.7% in the 3rd quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 198 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 89 shares during the period. CNB Bank raised its holdings in Yum! Brands by 833.3% in the 3rd quarter. CNB Bank now owns 224 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. acquired a new position in Yum! Brands in the 2nd quarter valued at $36,000. Finally, Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the 3rd quarter worth $40,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 0.1%

YUM stock opened at $159.83 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $44.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.80, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.64. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $158.11 and a 200-day simple moving average of $151.59. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $137.33 and a 52 week high of $169.39.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.73 earnings per share 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 analysts’ expectations of $2.45 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.61 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 20th were issued a $0.75 dividend. This is a positive change from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. 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%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 54.05%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 1,612 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $164.63, for a total transaction of $265,383.56. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Aaron Powell sold 12,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 14,650 shares in the company, valued at $2,365,096. The trade was a 45.03% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 14,138 shares of company stock valued at $2,289,990 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on YUM shares. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $190.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $179.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Wednesday, January 7th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $160.00 price target on Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, November 17th. Oppenheimer cut Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 6th. Finally, Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $174.50.

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.