Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC Sells 5,177 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 3.4% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 148,336 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 5,177 shares during the quarter. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $22,547,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Salomon & Ludwin LLC grew its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 679.2% in the 3rd quarter. Salomon & Ludwin LLC now owns 187 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 163 shares during the last quarter. Community Bank N.A. bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the third quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. CNB Bank lifted its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 200 shares during the period. Finally, Financial Gravity Companies Inc. bought a new stake in Yum! Brands in the second quarter valued at $36,000. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on YUM. Barclays set a $185.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $165.00 to $176.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $179.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, January 7th. Finally, Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $190.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $174.50.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In related news, CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 242 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.02, for a total transaction of $40,176.84. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 65,297 shares in the company, valued at $10,840,607.94. This represents a 0.37% 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. Also, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 1,612 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $164.63, for a total transaction of $265,383.56. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 14,138 shares of company stock worth $2,289,990. Company insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Trading Up 0.9%

Yum! Brands stock opened at $161.84 on Tuesday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $137.33 and a 12 month high of $169.39. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $158.92 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $152.04. The firm has a market cap of $44.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.16, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.64.

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

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 20th were paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 20th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. This is an increase from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.