Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec Decreases Stock Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec lessened its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) by 88.7% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 157,442 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after selling 1,231,963 shares during the quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec owned about 0.06% of Yum! Brands worth $21,996,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in YUM. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 5,077.1% in the 3rd quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 182,130 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $25,445,000 after acquiring an additional 178,612 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Yum! Brands by 14,151.9% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 148,220 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $20,708,000 after purchasing an additional 147,180 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 3.4% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 3,164,159 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $419,123,000 after buying an additional 104,328 shares during the last quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the second quarter valued at about $12,846,000. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 140.1% during the second quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 126,550 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $16,763,000 after buying an additional 73,844 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on YUM shares. Redburn Atlantic cut Yum! Brands from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their target price on Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. TD Cowen restated a "hold" rating and set a $145.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $150.00 to $154.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $137.00 to $144.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $145.94.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 0.5 %

NYSE YUM traded up $0.71 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $138.98. The stock had a trading volume of 2,293,483 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,938,853. The company has a market cap of $38.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.98, a P/E/G ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 1.10. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $123.70 and a 52-week high of $143.20. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $135.15 and a 200 day simple moving average of $134.51.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.41 by ($0.04). The business had revenue of $1.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.90 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 18.93% and a net margin of 21.13%. The business's revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.44 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.93%. Yum! Brands's dividend payout ratio is currently 50.09%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,059 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.94, for a total value of $959,600.46. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 149,385 shares of the company's stock, valued at $20,307,396.90. This represents a 4.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In the last three months, insiders sold 21,069 shares of company stock valued at $2,842,965. Company insiders own 0.31% of the company's stock.

Yum! Brands Company 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.