Norges Bank Takes $418.69 Million Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 3,120,839 shares of the restaurant operator's stock, valued at approximately $418,692,000. Norges Bank owned approximately 1.12% of Yum! Brands at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the third quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter worth $33,000. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 52.1% during the fourth quarter. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. now owns 295 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 101 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in Yum! Brands in the third quarter valued at $42,000. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In related news, insider Erika Burkhardt sold 597 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.07, for a total transaction of $94,964.79. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 64 shares of the company's stock, valued at $10,180.48. This represents a 90.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 30,604 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $159.46, for a total transaction of $4,880,113.84. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 160,296 shares in the company, valued at $25,560,800.16. The trade was a 16.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 50,132 shares of company stock valued at $7,952,685 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.31% of the company's stock.

Yum! Brands Trading Down 0.3 %

YUM stock traded down $0.54 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $158.38. 328,557 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,951,088. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $122.13 and a 12 month high of $163.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $44.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.34, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $148.44 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $139.03.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 21st were paid a $0.71 dividend. This is a boost from Yum! Brands's previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 21st. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.79%. Yum! Brands's payout ratio is 54.41%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on YUM. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective 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. Argus raised Yum! Brands from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $155.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday, December 31st. UBS Group boosted their price target on Yum! Brands from $156.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. TD Securities reissued a "hold" rating and issued a $164.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Monday. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $176.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Fifteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $151.79.

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.