VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al Purchases 192,900 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al grew its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 46.4% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 608,700 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 192,900 shares during the quarter. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al owned approximately 0.22% of Yum! Brands worth $92,522,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of YUM. HFM Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in Yum! Brands in the 1st quarter worth $25,000. Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group purchased a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the second quarter valued at about $29,000. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the second quarter valued at about $36,000. Twin Peaks Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the second quarter worth about $42,000. Finally, Private Wealth Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 219.4% during the second quarter. Private Wealth Asset Management LLC now owns 297 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 204 shares in the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 0.0%

Shares of NYSE:YUM opened at $152.22 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $148.83 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $147.40. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $122.13 and a 52 week high of $163.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $42.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.67, a PEG ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.67.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.58 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.12. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 17.95% and a negative return on equity of 21.79%. The firm had revenue of $1.98 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.96 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.37 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 12th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 2nd were issued a $0.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 2nd. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is 55.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 1,755 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $148.81, for a total transaction of $261,161.55. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Aaron Powell sold 2,790 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.48, for a total transaction of $419,839.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 26,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,010,292. This represents a 9.48% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders sold 30,695 shares of company stock worth $4,582,843. 0.33% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

YUM has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Evercore ISI upgraded Yum! Brands from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $165.00 to $180.00 in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $150.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $162.00 to $173.00 in a report on Monday, November 17th. Piper Sandler reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Friday, December 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Monday. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $168.00.

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.