Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Position Trimmed by New York Life Investment Management LLC

New York Life Investment Management LLC lessened its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 27.7% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 44,411 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 17,043 shares during the quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $5,803,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in YUM. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 59.5% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 531,103 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $69,596,000 after buying an additional 198,069 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 16.7% during the fourth quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 112,905 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $14,752,000 after purchasing an additional 16,124 shares during the period. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 4.2% during the third quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 5,689 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $711,000 after purchasing an additional 229 shares during the last quarter. Sapient Capital LLC purchased a new position in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter worth about $381,000. Finally, Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund increased its stake in Yum! Brands by 140.9% in the 4th quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 66,364 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $8,671,000 after purchasing an additional 38,818 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on YUM. Citigroup dropped their price target on Yum! Brands from $166.00 to $162.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. Barclays lifted their price target on Yum! Brands from $144.00 to $148.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on Yum! Brands from $134.00 to $132.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Argus reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Oppenheimer upgraded Yum! Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $154.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday, January 5th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $144.31.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In other news, VP David Eric Russell sold 9,919 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.63, for a total transaction of $1,285,799.97. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 18,661 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,419,025.43. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,067 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.34, for a total value of $963,514.78. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 175,377 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,910,900.18. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP David Eric Russell sold 9,919 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.63, for a total value of $1,285,799.97. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 18,661 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,419,025.43. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 24,064 shares of company stock worth $3,228,698. 0.31% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Yum! Brands Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of YUM opened at $134.34 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $37.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.07. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $138.25 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $131.42. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $115.53 and a 1 year high of $143.20.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The restaurant operator reported $1.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.20 by ($0.05). The firm had revenue of $1.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.71 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 22.92% and a negative return on equity of 18.64%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.06 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.72 EPS for the current year.

About Yum! Brands

Yum! Brands, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, develops, operates, and franchises quick service restaurants worldwide. The company operates through the KFC Division, the Taco Bell Division, the Pizza Hut Division, and the Habit Burger Grill Division segments. It also operates restaurants under the KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and The Habit Burger Grill brands, which specialize in chicken, pizza, made-to-order chargrilled burgers, sandwiches, Mexican-style food categories, and other food products.