Glenview Trust Co Makes New $2.69 Million Investment in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Glenview Trust Co bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 16,861 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $2,695,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of YUM. Hsbc Holdings PLC grew its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 5.9% during the 4th quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 569,676 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $86,197,000 after purchasing an additional 31,836 shares during the period. Bleakley Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands during the first quarter worth about $1,589,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its position in Yum! Brands by 5.4% during the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 584,953 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $88,030,000 after buying an additional 30,075 shares during the period. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd acquired a new position in Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter worth about $1,264,000. Finally, QRG Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in Yum! Brands by 19.8% in the first quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 103,807 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $16,140,000 after buying an additional 17,189 shares in the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on YUM shares. Morgan Stanley raised Yum! Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $180.00 to $185.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Yum! Brands from $170.00 to $160.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 4th. Zacks Research lowered Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday, August 24th. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Tuesday, June 16th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $174.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Friday, July 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $174.65.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Shares of Yum! Brands stock opened at $154.08 on Friday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $137.33 and a 1 year high of $170.14. The firm has a market cap of $42.05 billion, a PE ratio of 19.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 0.55. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $153.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $155.81.

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

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 9th will be given a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 9th. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 37.74%.

Yum! Brands declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Tuesday, June 16th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the restaurant operator to buy up to 9.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 270 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $148.14, for a total transaction of $39,997.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 64,282 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,522,735.48. The trade was a 0.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 277 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.42, for a total value of $44,436.34. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 483 shares in the company, valued at $77,482.86. This represents a 36.45% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 19,043 shares of company stock valued at $2,978,180. Company insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

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.