Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM Shares Sold by Magellan Asset Management Ltd

Magellan Asset Management Ltd reduced its holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 7.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,134,452 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 172,480 shares during the quarter. Yum! Brands accounts for 3.8% of Magellan Asset Management Ltd’s portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest position. Magellan Asset Management Ltd owned about 0.77% of Yum! Brands worth $324,437,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Salomon & Ludwin LLC increased its holdings in shares of 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. increased its stake in Yum! Brands by 81.7% during the 3rd quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 198 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 89 shares during the period. CNB Bank raised its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $36,000. Finally, Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the third quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $190.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Friday, February 13th. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $179.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, January 7th. Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and issued a $180.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $160.00 target price on Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, November 17th. Finally, Barclays set a $185.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $174.50.

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

In other news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 1,612 shares of Yum! Brands 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Aaron Powell sold 12,000 shares of the company’s 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 in the company, valued at $2,365,096. The trade was a 45.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 13,888 shares of company stock worth $2,244,938. Corporate insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 0.4%

NYSE:YUM opened at $165.80 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $156.63 and a 200 day simple moving average of $150.63. The firm has a market capitalization of $45.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 0.66. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $137.33 and a 1-year high of $169.39.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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). Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 22.42% and a net margin of 18.98%.The company had revenue of $2.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.45 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.61 EPS. Yum! Brands’s quarterly revenue was up 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

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