NS Partners Ltd Sells 3,214 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

NS Partners Ltd trimmed its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) by 1.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 176,173 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after selling 3,214 shares during the quarter. NS Partners Ltd owned 0.06% of Yum! Brands worth $23,635,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in Yum! Brands by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,355,367 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $315,996,000 after acquiring an additional 94,026 shares during the last quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 15.5% in the 3rd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 127,446 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $17,805,000 after purchasing an additional 17,133 shares during the last quarter. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at $1,262,000. Cantillon Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 31.7% in the 4th quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,880,379 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $252,272,000 after purchasing an additional 452,339 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Forsta AP Fonden boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 5.3% in the 4th quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 110,500 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $14,825,000 after purchasing an additional 5,600 shares during the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

YUM has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. TD Securities upped their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $151.00 to $164.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an "equal weight" rating and set a $140.00 target price (down previously from $158.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $130.00 to $148.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price 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, March 5th. Finally, Argus upgraded shares of Yum! Brands from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $155.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 31st. Fifteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $150.42.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of YUM stock traded down $2.29 on Wednesday, hitting $154.41. The stock had a trading volume of 1,631,857 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,914,887. The business has a 50 day moving average of $139.78 and a 200 day moving average of $136.67. The stock has a market cap of $43.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $122.13 and a 12-month high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.84%. This is an increase from Yum! Brands's previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. Yum! Brands's dividend payout ratio is currently 54.41%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.06, for a total value of $522,883.90. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 149,385 shares in the company, valued at $20,474,708.10. This represents a 2.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP David Eric Russell sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 approximately $1,897,573.60. This represents a 29.48 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 48,654 shares of company stock worth $7,659,176 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.31% of the company's stock.

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.