Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC Buys New Shares in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 3,631 shares of the restaurant operator's stock, valued at approximately $487,000.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter worth about $33,000. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 52.1% during the fourth quarter. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. now owns 295 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 101 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $42,000. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on YUM. TD Cowen reaffirmed a "hold" rating and issued a $140.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $148.00 to $151.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered Yum! Brands from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $140.00 to $135.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Argus raised shares of Yum! Brands from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $155.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 31st. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Sixteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $152.71.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 0.4 %

YUM stock traded up $0.56 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $143.13. The stock had a trading volume of 1,768,214 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,021,870. The firm has a market cap of $39.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.42, a PEG ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.90. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $122.13 and a twelve month high of $163.30. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $152.19 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $140.18.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Investors of record on Friday, February 21st were paid a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.98%. 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. Yum! Brands's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 54.41%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In other news, VP David Eric Russell sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $1,897,573.60. This trade represents a 29.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 30,604 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, 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 quarter, insiders have sold 55,271 shares of company stock valued at $8,706,576. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.