Miracle Mile Advisors LLC Buys New Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Miracle Mile Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 2,210 shares of the restaurant operator's stock, valued at approximately $296,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in YUM. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the 3rd quarter worth $29,000. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 957.1% during the 3rd quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. now owns 222 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 201 shares during the period. Kimelman & Baird LLC acquired a new position in Yum! Brands in the 2nd quarter worth $37,000. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL acquired a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Finally, Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in Yum! Brands in the third quarter worth about $42,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Citigroup restated 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. Argus upgraded Yum! Brands from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $155.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, December 31st. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Bank of America lowered their target price on Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Loop Capital lowered their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $143.00 to $140.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $146.24.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.06, for a total transaction of $522,883.90. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,385 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,474,708.10. This represents a 2.49 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 0.31% of the company's stock.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Yum! Brands stock traded down $0.93 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $125.31. 1,604,189 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,957,160. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $134.08 and a 200-day simple moving average of $133.63. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $122.13 and a 12 month high of $143.20. The firm has a market cap of $34.97 billion, a PE ratio of 23.42, a PEG ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 1.11.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results 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 negative return on equity of 18.93% and a net margin of 21.13%. The business had revenue of $1.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.90 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.44 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were paid a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.14%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 2nd. Yum! Brands's dividend payout ratio is currently 50.09%.

About Yum! Brands

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.