Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM Shares Acquired by First Trust Advisors LP

First Trust Advisors LP grew its holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 179.2% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 422,401 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 271,085 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $64,205,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Salomon & Ludwin LLC lifted its position in Yum! Brands by 679.2% during the third quarter. Salomon & Ludwin LLC now owns 187 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 163 shares during the period. Westside Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Yum! Brands by 81.7% during the 3rd quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 198 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares during the period. CNB Bank grew its position in Yum! Brands by 833.3% during the 3rd quarter. CNB Bank now owns 224 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the period. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the 2nd quarter valued at about $36,000. Finally, Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at about $40,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In related news, CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 242 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.02, for a total value of $40,176.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 65,297 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,840,607.94. The trade was a 0.37% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 1,612 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $164.63, for a total transaction of $265,383.56. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 14,138 shares of company stock valued at $2,289,990 in the last three months. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

YUM has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $180.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Monday, December 29th. BMO Capital Markets reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $165.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Citigroup upped their price objective on Yum! Brands from $170.00 to $171.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $174.50.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 0.4%

NYSE:YUM opened at $159.28 on Wednesday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $137.33 and a 52 week high of $169.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $44.03 billion, a PE ratio of 28.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.64. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $158.25 and its 200-day moving average price is $151.67.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.73 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.76 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $2.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.45 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 22.42% and a net margin of 18.98%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.61 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 20th were given a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 20th. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 54.05%.

Yum! Brands Company 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.