Lido Advisors LLC Has $2.37 Million Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Lido Advisors LLC decreased its holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 28.7% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 15,228 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 6,123 shares during the quarter. Lido Advisors LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $2,368,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in YUM. Hsbc Holdings PLC lifted its position 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 buying an additional 31,836 shares during the period. Bleakley Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in Yum! Brands in the first quarter valued at $1,589,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its position in Yum! Brands by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 584,953 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $88,030,000 after acquiring an additional 30,075 shares during the period. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd acquired a new position in Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter worth $1,264,000. Finally, Ethos Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter valued at $1,372,000. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Yum! Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $180.00 to $185.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Yum! Brands from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating and issued a $180.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Tuesday, June 16th. Wells Fargo & Company upped 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 note on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $175.00 to $178.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Sunday, July 12th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $174.81.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 0.1%

Yum! Brands stock opened at $148.82 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $154.06 and a 200 day simple moving average of $156.76. The stock has a market capitalization of $41.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.00, a P/E/G ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 0.56. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $137.33 and a 12-month high of $170.14.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The restaurant operator reported $1.50 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $2.06 billion for 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%. The company’s revenue was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.30 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 6.74 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 27th were paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 27th. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is 48.39%.

Yum! Brands announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Tuesday, June 16th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the restaurant operator to repurchase up to 9.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 270 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $148.14, for a total value of $39,997.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 64,282 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,522,735.48. This trade represents a 0.42% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 1,837 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $152.00, for a total transaction of $279,224.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 3,497 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $531,544. This represents a 34.44% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 12,423 shares of company stock valued at $1,953,721 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

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.