Lloyd Advisory Services LLC. Acquires Shares of 9,075 Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Lloyd Advisory Services LLC. acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 9,075 shares of the restaurant operator's stock, valued at approximately $1,259,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 59.5% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 531,103 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $69,596,000 after buying an additional 198,069 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its stake in Yum! Brands by 16.7% during the fourth quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 112,905 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $14,752,000 after purchasing an additional 16,124 shares during the period. Sapient Capital LLC purchased a new position in Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter worth approximately $381,000. American National Bank raised its stake in Yum! Brands by 52.1% during the fourth quarter. American National Bank now owns 23,168 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $3,027,000 after purchasing an additional 7,934 shares during the period. Finally, Leo Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter worth approximately $268,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

YUM has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $132.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, June 3rd. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $133.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Argus reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Barclays increased their price objective 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. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, June 13th. They issued a "neutral" rating and a $150.00 price objective for the company. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $144.33.

Yum! Brands Trading Down 0.2 %

NYSE:YUM traded down $0.30 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $133.99. The stock had a trading volume of 2,365,198 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,969,165. The stock has a market capitalization of $37.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.76, a P/E/G ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $137.97 and a 200-day simple moving average of $134.97. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $115.53 and a 52 week high of $143.20.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 1st. The restaurant operator reported $1.15 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.20 by ($0.05). The firm had revenue of $1.60 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.71 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 22.92% and a negative return on equity of 18.64%. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.06 earnings per share. 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 company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 7th. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 28th were given a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 24th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.00%. Yum! Brands's dividend payout ratio is presently 47.52%.

Yum! Brands declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Wednesday, May 15th that allows the company to repurchase $2.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the restaurant operator to buy up to 5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

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

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.