HighPoint Advisor Group LLC Buys New Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

HighPoint Advisor Group 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 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 6,567 shares of the restaurant operator's stock, valued at approximately $884,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter worth $331,831,000. Capital World Investors raised its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 4.9% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 14,650,728 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $1,914,257,000 after acquiring an additional 678,659 shares in the last quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. raised its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 107.5% in the 4th quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 1,254,446 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $163,906,000 after acquiring an additional 649,922 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc lifted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 55.8% in the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,592,259 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $208,045,000 after purchasing an additional 570,263 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec boosted its position in Yum! Brands by 129.5% during the third quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 769,543 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $96,147,000 after purchasing an additional 434,284 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on YUM. Guggenheim boosted their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $144.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. Argus reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Citigroup cut their price objective on Yum! Brands from $166.00 to $162.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Yum! Brands from $133.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $144.33.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,078 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $138.37, for a total value of $979,382.86. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 172,128 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $23,817,351.36. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Yum! Brands news, insider Scott Catlett sold 5,994 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.50, for a total value of $848,151.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 34,889 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,936,793.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,078 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $138.37, for a total value of $979,382.86. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 172,128 shares of the company's stock, valued at $23,817,351.36. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 33,515 shares of company stock valued at $4,620,080. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of Yum! Brands stock traded down $1.50 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $135.42. 2,393,312 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,937,871. The company has a market cap of $38.14 billion, a PE ratio of 24.28, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.08. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $138.28 and its 200 day moving average price is $134.64. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $115.53 and a twelve month high of $143.20.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 1st. The restaurant operator reported $1.15 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.20 by ($0.05). Yum! Brands had a net margin of 22.92% and a negative return on equity of 18.64%. The company had revenue of $1.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.71 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.06 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.64 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 7th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 28th were paid a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 24th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.98%. Yum! Brands's dividend payout ratio is currently 47.52%.

Yum! Brands announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase program on Wednesday, May 15th that permits the company to buyback $2.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the restaurant operator to reacquire up to 5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.