Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) CEO Scott Mezvinsky Sells 277 Shares of Stock

Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 277 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.42, for a total value of $44,436.34. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 483 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $77,482.86. The trade was a 36.45% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Scott Mezvinsky also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, June 1st, Scott Mezvinsky sold 261 shares of Yum! Brands stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $148.14, for a total transaction of $38,664.54.
• On Friday, May 1st, Scott Mezvinsky sold 277 shares of Yum! Brands stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.48, for a total transaction of $44,452.96.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 1.0%

Shares of NYSE YUM opened at $161.46 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $153.68 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $156.29. The firm has a market capitalization of $44.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.04, a P/E/G ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 0.56. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $137.33 and a twelve month high of $169.39.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The restaurant operator reported $1.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.39 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $2.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.04 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 20.48% and a negative return on equity of 23.51%. Yum! Brands’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.30 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 6.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 12th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 27th were issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 27th. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 48.39%.

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Yum! Brands

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Steph & Co. lifted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 107.5% during the first quarter. Steph & Co. now owns 166 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 86 shares in the last quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter valued at $28,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the first quarter worth about $28,000. Wiser Advisor Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the third quarter valued at $28,000. Finally, State of Wyoming purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the 1st quarter valued at about $30,000. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on YUM. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $168.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, May 4th. TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $180.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Tuesday, June 16th. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Tuesday, June 16th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut shares of Yum! Brands from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Yum! Brands has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $176.12.

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.