Prudential Financial Inc. Sells 23,778 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Prudential Financial Inc. decreased its stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) by 13.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 148,053 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after selling 23,778 shares during the period. Prudential Financial Inc. owned 0.05% of Yum! Brands worth $19,863,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. ICW Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in Yum! Brands by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. ICW Investment Advisors LLC now owns 17,265 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $2,316,000 after acquiring an additional 698 shares during the period. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 94.9% in the 4th quarter. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE now owns 3,388 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $455,000 after acquiring an additional 1,650 shares during the last quarter. Richwood Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 12.4% during the fourth quarter. Richwood Investment Advisors LLC now owns 3,398 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $456,000 after purchasing an additional 376 shares in the last quarter. Fox Run Management L.L.C. bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter worth about $1,101,000. Finally, KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS bought a new stake in Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter worth approximately $13,181,000. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $146.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Yum! Brands from $138.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. 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. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Yum! Brands from $130.00 to $148.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Citigroup restated a "neutral" rating and set a $141.00 price target (down previously from $153.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Friday, January 10th. Fifteen 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 currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $151.79.

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Yum! Brands Stock Down 1.2 %

YUM stock traded down $1.93 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $155.72. 1,492,564 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,953,756. The stock has a market cap of $43.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.83, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $122.13 and a fifty-two week high of $163.30. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $147.14 and its 200 day moving average price is $138.65.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Investors of record on Friday, February 21st were given a $0.71 dividend. This is a positive change from Yum! Brands's previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.82%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. Yum! Brands's dividend payout ratio is presently 54.41%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Yum! Brands news, VP David Eric Russell sold 5,000 shares of Yum! Brands 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 transaction, the vice president now owns 11,960 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,897,573.60. This trade represents a 29.48 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 5,293 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.24, for a total value of $816,392.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 157,893 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $24,353,416.32. This represents a 3.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 50,132 shares of company stock valued at $7,952,685 in the last three months. 0.31% of the stock is currently 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.