Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS Sells 1,868 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS reduced its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) by 3.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 59,339 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after selling 1,868 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS's holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $7,961,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in YUM. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at $29,000. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter worth $33,000. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 52.1% during the 4th 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 acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands in the third quarter valued at about $42,000. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Yum! Brands Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of YUM stock traded down $0.20 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $155.62. 474,781 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,149,857. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $122.13 and a 52-week high of $163.30. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $144.62 and a 200 day simple moving average of $138.03. The stock has a market capitalization of $43.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.80, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03.

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Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st were given a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.82%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. This is a boost from Yum! Brands's previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. Yum! Brands's dividend payout ratio is currently 54.41%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have weighed in on YUM shares. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $162.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Stifel Nicolaus raised 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. UBS Group upped their target price on Yum! Brands from $156.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $138.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein cut shares of Yum! Brands from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and cut their price target for the company from $140.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Fifteen equities research 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, Yum! Brands currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $151.79.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 5,293 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 157,893 shares in the company, valued at $24,353,416.32. This trade represents a 3.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Erika Burkhardt sold 597 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.07, for a total transaction of $94,964.79. Following the sale, the insider now owns 64 shares in the company, valued at $10,180.48. The trade was a 90.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 50,132 shares of company stock worth $7,952,685. 0.31% of the stock is owned by company 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.