West Family Investments Inc. Acquires New Shares in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

West Family Investments Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 1,960 shares of the restaurant operator's stock, valued at approximately $263,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Investment Partners LTD. increased its position in shares of 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 last quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. increased its holdings in Yum! Brands by 5.0% in the 4th quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 1,575 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $211,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC increased 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 worth $290,000 after acquiring an additional 82 shares in the last quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC increased its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 92 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Atria Investments Inc increased its holdings in Yum! Brands by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 24,937 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $3,346,000 after acquiring an additional 92 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company's stock.

Remove Ads

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $176.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday. 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 report on Tuesday, December 31st. Citigroup reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $141.00 price objective (down from $153.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Friday, January 10th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $156.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Fourteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $150.42.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP David Eric Russell sold 5,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 11,960 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,897,573.60. The trade was a 29.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.06, for a total transaction of $522,883.90. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,385 shares of the company's stock, valued at $20,474,708.10. This represents a 2.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 48,654 shares of company stock valued at $7,659,176 over the last three months. 0.31% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

NYSE YUM traded up $3.41 on Friday, hitting $162.67. 3,411,259 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,909,858. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $138.84 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $136.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $45.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.16, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $122.13 and a 52-week high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders 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 1.75%. This is a positive change from Yum! Brands's previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. Yum! Brands's payout ratio is presently 54.41%.

Yum! Brands Company 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.