Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Buys New Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC bought a new position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 53,777 shares of the restaurant operator's stock, valued at approximately $7,215,000.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the third quarter worth approximately $29,000. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. grew its position in Yum! Brands by 957.1% during the 3rd quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. now owns 222 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 201 shares in the last quarter. Kimelman & Baird LLC acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands during the 2nd quarter valued at $37,000. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the second quarter worth $39,000. Finally, Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the third quarter valued at $42,000. 82.37% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have weighed in on YUM shares. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an "equal weight" rating and set a $140.00 target price (down previously from $158.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Bank of America cut their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Redburn Atlantic downgraded shares of Yum! Brands from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, TD Cowen reaffirmed a "hold" rating and set a $145.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $144.89.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:YUM traded up $0.07 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $129.31. 1,342,769 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,024,476. The company has a market capitalization of $36.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 1.11. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $122.13 and a 1-year high of $143.20. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $132.84 and its 200-day simple moving average is $133.58.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.37 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 net margin of 21.13% and a negative return on equity of 18.93%. Yum! Brands's revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.44 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were issued a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.07%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 2nd. Yum! Brands's payout ratio is 50.09%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,059 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.94, for a total transaction of $959,600.46. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 149,385 shares in the company, valued at $20,307,396.90. This represents a 4.51 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.