Commonwealth Equity Services LLC Grows Stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC grew its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) by 2.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 102,279 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after purchasing an additional 2,433 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC's holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $13,722,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of YUM. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,441,170 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $1,038,775,000 after acquiring an additional 111,147 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,355,367 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $315,996,000 after purchasing an additional 94,026 shares in the last quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 31.7% during the fourth quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,880,379 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $252,272,000 after purchasing an additional 452,339 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Yum! Brands by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,677,290 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $225,025,000 after purchasing an additional 44,428 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank increased its stake in Yum! Brands by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 835,800 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $116,770,000 after buying an additional 2,800 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company's stock.

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Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

YUM has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Argus upgraded Yum! Brands from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $155.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, December 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Yum! Brands from $138.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target 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. Fifteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $151.79.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

NYSE YUM traded down $1.15 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $156.75. 3,071,625 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,885,066. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $122.13 and a 52-week high of $163.30. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $143.99 and a 200 day simple moving average of $137.82. The firm has a market cap of $43.75 billion, a PE ratio of 30.03, a PEG ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Investors of record on Friday, February 21st were given a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.81%. This is an increase from Yum! Brands's previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. Yum! Brands's dividend payout ratio is 54.41%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

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 owns 11,960 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,897,573.60. The trade was a 29.48 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 30,604 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.46, for a total transaction of $4,880,113.84. Following the sale, 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. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 50,132 shares of company stock worth $7,952,685. 0.31% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.