Paragon Financial Partners Inc. Acquires New Shares in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Paragon Financial Partners Inc. bought a new stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 3,466 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $531,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of YUM. Steph & Co. increased its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 86 shares during the period. Kelleher Financial Advisors acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands in the second quarter worth about $29,000. MV Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the 1st quarter worth approximately $28,000. Finally, Wiser Advisor Group LLC bought a new stake in Yum! Brands during the third quarter worth approximately $28,000. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

In other news, CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 270 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $148.14, for a total value of $39,997.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 64,282 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,522,735.48. This trade represents a 0.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, 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 completion of the transaction, the vice president owned 11,960 shares in the company, valued at $1,831,674. The trade was a 39.96% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 18,549 shares of company stock valued at $2,890,168. 0.14% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Yum! Brands Trading Down 1.9%

Shares of NYSE:YUM opened at $145.36 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $39.67 billion, a PE ratio of 18.28, a P/E/G ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 0.55. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $137.33 and a 1 year high of $170.14. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $153.71 and a 200 day moving average price of $156.15.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.62 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.58 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $2.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.18 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 24.57% and a net margin of 25.42%.The business’s revenue was up 12.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.44 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 6.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands announced that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, June 16th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the restaurant operator to repurchase up to 9.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “hold” rating and set a $174.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Tuesday, June 16th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Yum! Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $180.00 to $185.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $174.65.

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.