Teacher Retirement System of Texas Boosts Stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas lifted its holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) by 947.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 19,737 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after buying an additional 17,852 shares during the quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas' holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $2,648,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of YUM. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter worth $25,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the third quarter valued at about $29,000. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter worth about $33,000. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. grew its position in 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 period. Finally, Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in Yum! Brands in the third quarter valued at about $42,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

YUM has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Barclays boosted their price target on Yum! Brands from $162.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. TD Cowen reiterated a "hold" rating and set a $140.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Citigroup restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $141.00 price target (down previously from $153.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Yum! Brands from $130.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Yum! Brands from $138.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Fifteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $151.79.

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Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 8,638 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.36, for a total transaction of $1,367,913.68. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 2,970 shares in the company, valued at $470,329.20. The trade was a 74.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 5,293 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.24, for a total transaction of $816,392.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 157,893 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,353,416.32. This represents a 3.24 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 50,132 shares of company stock valued at $7,952,685. Company insiders own 0.31% of the company's stock.

Yum! Brands Trading Down 1.2 %

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

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

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

About Yum! Brands

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.