Legal & General Group Plc Sells 785,569 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Legal & General Group Plc lowered its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) by 25.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,247,440 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after selling 785,569 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned 0.81% of Yum! Brands worth $301,517,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Yum! Brands by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,604,632 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $1,021,194,000 after purchasing an additional 163,462 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter worth about $418,692,000. FMR LLC raised 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 worth $338,296,000 after acquiring an additional 24,681 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in Yum! Brands by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,355,367 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $315,996,000 after acquiring an additional 94,026 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 12.0% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,284,171 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $306,444,000 after purchasing an additional 244,264 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company's stock.

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Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In related news, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 8,638 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.36, for a total transaction of $1,367,913.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 2,970 shares in the company, valued at $470,329.20. The trade was a 74.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, VP David Eric Russell sold 5,000 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.66, for a total value of $793,300.00. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 11,960 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,897,573.60. This trade represents a 29.48 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 50,132 shares of company stock valued at $7,952,685. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on YUM shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $146.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $138.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded shares of Yum! Brands from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $140.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Sixteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $152.24.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of Yum! Brands stock traded up $0.83 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $145.83. The company had a trading volume of 886,133 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,013,232. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $122.13 and a one year high of $163.30. The firm has a market cap of $40.70 billion, a PE ratio of 27.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.90. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $152.06 and a 200 day simple moving average of $140.04.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared 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 a boost 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 dividend 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.