Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. Trims Stock Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. reduced its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) by 6.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 88,628 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after selling 6,182 shares during the period. Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P.'s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $11,890,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,441,170 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $1,038,775,000 after buying an additional 111,147 shares in 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. Cantillon Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 31.7% during the 4th quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,880,379 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $252,272,000 after purchasing an additional 452,339 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,677,290 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $225,025,000 after purchasing an additional 44,428 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi increased its holdings in Yum! Brands by 23.8% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 749,895 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $95,792,000 after purchasing an additional 144,406 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company's stock.

Remove Ads

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently issued reports on YUM shares. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $176.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Citigroup restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $141.00 price objective (down from $153.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Fifteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Yum! Brands has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $151.79.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Yum! Brands news, VP David Eric Russell sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.66, for a total transaction of $793,300.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 11,960 shares in the company, valued at $1,897,573.60. This represents a 29.48 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 30,604 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.46, for a total value of $4,880,113.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 160,296 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $25,560,800.16. This trade represents a 16.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 50,132 shares of company stock worth $7,952,685. Insiders own 0.31% of the company's stock.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Shares of YUM traded down $0.93 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $155.82. 1,952,505 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,887,687. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $122.13 and a 1-year high of $163.30. The stock has a market cap of $43.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a 50 day moving average of $144.62 and a 200-day moving average of $138.03.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 21st were paid a $0.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 21st. This is an increase from Yum! Brands's previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.82%. Yum! Brands's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.