Lansforsakringar Fondforvaltning AB publ Increases Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Lansforsakringar Fondforvaltning AB publ lifted its holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 7.3% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 91,490 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,262 shares during the period. Lansforsakringar Fondforvaltning AB publ’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $13,906,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

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

Yum! Brands Trading Up 2.0%

YUM opened at $166.58 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $46.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.01, a PEG ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.66. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $137.33 and a 12 month high of $166.98. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $156.34 and a 200-day moving average price of $150.46.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.76 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $2.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.45 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 18.98% and a negative return on equity of 22.42%. Yum! Brands’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.61 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 20th will be given a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 20th. This is an increase from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is presently 54.05%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on YUM. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $179.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, January 7th. Gordon Haskett raised Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 8th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Yum! Brands from $165.00 to $176.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated a “positive” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $174.00.

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Aaron Powell sold 12,000 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $161.44, for a total value of $1,937,280.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 14,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,365,096. The trade was a 45.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 1,612 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $164.63, for a total value of $265,383.56. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 13,888 shares of company stock valued at $2,244,938. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.