Royal London Asset Management Ltd. Has $16.36 Million Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Royal London Asset Management Ltd. lifted its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) by 5.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 121,945 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after acquiring an additional 6,042 shares during the period. Royal London Asset Management Ltd.'s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $16,360,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC now owns 2,664 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $357,000 after acquiring an additional 69 shares during the period. Investment Partners LTD. boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Investment Partners LTD. now owns 3,231 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $433,000 after purchasing an additional 72 shares during the period. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 5.0% during the 4th quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 1,575 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $211,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares during the period. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC grew its holdings in Yum! Brands by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC now owns 2,165 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $290,000 after buying an additional 82 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Anchor Investment Management LLC increased its position in Yum! Brands by 7.4% in the 3rd quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 1,329 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $186,000 after buying an additional 92 shares during the period. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Remove Ads

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on YUM. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Yum! Brands from $130.00 to $148.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Argus raised shares of Yum! Brands from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $155.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, December 31st. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $156.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein cut shares of Yum! Brands from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and reduced their target price for the company from $140.00 to $135.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Fifteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $151.79.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other 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 of the company's stock, valued at $1,897,573.60. This represents a 29.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 30,604 shares of the 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 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. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 50,132 shares of company stock valued at $7,952,685. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE YUM traded down $0.36 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $155.46. 428,362 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,887,335. The company has a market cap of $43.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.80, a PEG ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $122.13 and a twelve month high of $163.30. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $144.62 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $138.03.

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 given a $0.71 dividend. This is an increase from Yum! Brands's previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.83%. Yum! Brands's payout ratio is presently 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.