KBC Group NV Reduces Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

KBC Group NV reduced its holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) by 26.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 161,134 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after selling 57,695 shares during the period. KBC Group NV owned about 0.06% of Yum! Brands worth $21,618,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in YUM. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,441,170 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $1,038,775,000 after purchasing an additional 111,147 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Yum! Brands by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,632,862 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $228,127,000 after buying an additional 6,537 shares during the period. Cantillon Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 3.8% during the third quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,428,040 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $199,511,000 after purchasing an additional 51,690 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 835,800 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $116,770,000 after buying an additional 2,800 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 689,631 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $96,348,000 after purchasing an additional 20,966 shares during the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,059 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,385 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,307,396.90. This represents a 4.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.31% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Loop Capital cut their price objective on Yum! Brands from $143.00 to $140.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Citigroup reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $141.00 price target (down previously from $153.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered shares of Yum! Brands from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and cut their target price for the stock from $140.00 to $135.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an "equal weight" rating and set a $140.00 price target (down previously from $158.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Argus upgraded Yum! Brands from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $155.00 target price for the company in a report on Tuesday, December 31st. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $144.89.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

NYSE YUM traded up $0.07 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $129.31. The company had a trading volume of 1,342,769 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,024,476. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $132.84 and a 200 day simple moving average of $133.58. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $122.13 and a 52 week high of $143.20. The firm has a market capitalization of $36.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.17, a PEG ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 1.11.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.37 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.41 by ($0.04). Yum! Brands had a net margin of 21.13% and a negative return on equity of 18.93%. The firm had revenue of $1.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.90 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.44 EPS. Yum! Brands's revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

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

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.