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

Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 8.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 57,885 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,290 shares during the quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $8,757,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Midwest Trust Co boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 8.0% during the 4th quarter. Midwest Trust Co now owns 8,376 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,267,000 after acquiring an additional 619 shares during the period. Oxbow Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Oxbow Advisors LLC now owns 22,998 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $3,479,000 after buying an additional 113 shares during the period. NewEdge Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 92.9% in the 4th quarter. NewEdge Wealth LLC now owns 7,164 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,084,000 after buying an additional 3,450 shares during the period. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 11.2% in the 4th quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 14,924 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,258,000 after buying an additional 1,501 shares during the period. Finally, Ethic Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 11.1% in the 4th quarter. Ethic Inc. now owns 4,613 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $698,000 after buying an additional 462 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 recent research reports. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $180.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Weiss Ratings cut Yum! Brands from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on Yum! Brands from $180.00 to $186.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $180.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $168.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $176.22.

Insider Activity

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 277 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.48, for a total transaction of $44,452.96. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 483 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $77,511.84. The trade was a 36.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a 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 Christopher Lee Turner sold 250 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.48, for a total value of $40,120.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 64,552 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,359,304.96. This trade represents a 0.39% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 2,665 shares of company stock worth $437,283 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE YUM opened at $152.91 on Wednesday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $137.33 and a fifty-two week high of $169.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $42.15 billion, a PE ratio of 24.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 0.61. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $158.33 and its 200-day simple moving average is $154.95.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The restaurant operator reported $1.50 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.39 by $0.11. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 23.51% and a net margin of 20.48%.The business had revenue of $2.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.04 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.30 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 6.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.