Kepler Cheuvreux Suisse SA Invests $573,000 in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Kepler Cheuvreux Suisse SA acquired a new position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 3,685 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $573,000.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Steph & Co. increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 107.5% during the 1st quarter. Steph & Co. now owns 166 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 86 shares during the last quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter worth $28,000. Wiser Advisor Group LLC purchased a new position in Yum! Brands during the third quarter worth $28,000. Community Bank N.A. bought a new position in Yum! Brands during the third quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, Jessup Wealth Management Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of YUM stock opened at $164.20 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $45.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.48, a P/E/G ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.56. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $153.86 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $156.45. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $137.33 and a one year high of $169.39.

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

Yum! Brands declared that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Tuesday, June 16th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the restaurant operator to purchase up to 9.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 27th were given a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 27th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.8%. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is 48.39%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 1,837 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $152.00, for a total value of $279,224.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 3,497 shares in the company, valued at $531,544. The trade was a 34.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.42, for a total transaction of $40,105.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 64,032 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,272,013.44. This trade represents a 0.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 12,423 shares of company stock worth $1,953,721. 0.14% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on YUM shares. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Tuesday, June 16th. Citigroup increased their price target on Yum! Brands from $174.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. BMO Capital Markets restated a “market perform” rating and set a $168.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised Yum! Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $180.00 to $185.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $176.12.

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.