Bank of Montreal Can Lowers Stock Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Bank of Montreal Can decreased its stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) by 1.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 421,054 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after selling 6,724 shares during the quarter. Bank of Montreal Can owned approximately 0.15% of Yum! Brands worth $56,489,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in YUM. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,521,583 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $338,296,000 after buying an additional 24,681 shares in the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 4.9% in the 4th quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 437,848 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $58,729,000 after acquiring an additional 20,319 shares during the period. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $14,172,000. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. purchased a new position in Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter worth $232,000. Finally, Magellan Asset Management Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 6.2% in the fourth quarter. Magellan Asset Management Ltd now owns 2,064,738 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $277,005,000 after purchasing an additional 120,434 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. TD Securities restated a "hold" rating and set a $164.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, March 31st. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $130.00 to $148.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. TD Cowen restated a "hold" rating and issued a $140.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded Yum! Brands from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $140.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $176.00 to $174.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Sixteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $152.24.

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Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Erika Burkhardt sold 597 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $159.07, for a total transaction of $94,964.79. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 64 shares of the company's stock, valued at $10,180.48. The trade was a 90.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 30,604 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.46, for a total transaction of $4,880,113.84. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 160,296 shares of the company's stock, valued at $25,560,800.16. This represents a 16.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 50,132 shares of company stock worth $7,952,685. 0.31% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Yum! Brands stock opened at $145.51 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $40.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.88, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $151.51 and a 200-day simple moving average of $139.86. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $122.13 and a one year high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st were given a dividend of $0.71 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 21st. This is an increase from Yum! Brands's previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.95%. Yum! Brands's payout ratio is currently 54.41%.

Yum! Brands Profile

Yum! Brands, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, develops, operates, and franchises quick service restaurants worldwide. The company operates through the KFC Division, the Taco Bell Division, the Pizza Hut Division, and the Habit Burger Grill Division segments. It also operates restaurants under the KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and The Habit Burger Grill brands, which specialize in chicken, pizza, made-to-order chargrilled burgers, sandwiches, Mexican-style food categories, and other food products.

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