Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Shares Sold by Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD decreased its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) by 17.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,509,533 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after selling 315,197 shares during the quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD owned about 0.54% of Yum! Brands worth $202,520,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in YUM. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 4.2% in 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 during the period. Cantillon Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in 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 buying an additional 452,339 shares during the period. DJE Kapital AG purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter valued at about $3,306,000. Forsta AP Fonden increased its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 5.3% during the 4th quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 110,500 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $14,825,000 after acquiring an additional 5,600 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,677,290 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $225,025,000 after acquiring an additional 44,428 shares during the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently commented on YUM shares. TD Cowen reaffirmed a "hold" rating and set a $140.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered Yum! Brands from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and cut their target price for the stock from $140.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted 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. Citigroup upped their price target on Yum! Brands from $148.00 to $151.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Yum! Brands from $130.00 to $148.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Sixteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $152.62.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of Yum! Brands stock opened at $147.54 on Friday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $122.13 and a 1-year high of $163.30. The business has a 50-day moving average of $151.96 and a 200-day moving average of $140.52. The company has a market capitalization of $41.18 billion, a PE ratio of 28.26, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.90.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 21st were given a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.92%. 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 dividend payout ratio is presently 54.41%.

Insider Activity

In other Yum! Brands news, 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 160,296 shares of the company's stock, valued at $25,560,800.16. This trade represents a 16.03 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP David Eric Russell sold 5,000 shares of the company's 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 in the company, valued at approximately $1,897,573.60. This trade represents a 29.48 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 55,271 shares of company stock worth $8,706,576. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by 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.

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