Federated Hermes Inc. Has $47.16 Million Stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Federated Hermes Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 6,396.2% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 318,250 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 313,351 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. owned about 0.11% of Yum! Brands worth $47,158,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Yum! Brands by 1.3% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 34,557,612 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $5,120,747,000 after buying an additional 448,393 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.7% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,216,042 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,217,826,000 after acquiring an additional 218,046 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the second quarter worth $602,551,000. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P lifted its position in Yum! Brands by 1.1% during the second quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 3,844,806 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $569,723,000 after purchasing an additional 40,757 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in Yum! Brands by 34.3% during the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,789,728 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $413,382,000 after buying an additional 713,167 shares in the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, December 1st. Evercore ISI upgraded Yum! Brands from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $165.00 to $180.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Royal Bank Of Canada initiated coverage on Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. They set a “sector perform” rating and a $165.00 target price for the company. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $177.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. Finally, Cowen restated a “hold” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $167.38.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 1.7%

NYSE YUM opened at $142.43 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $39.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.76, a PEG ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.67. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $122.13 and a twelve month high of $163.30. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $147.19 and a 200 day simple moving average of $146.53.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.58 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $1.98 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.96 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 21.79% and a net margin of 17.95%.The business’s revenue was up 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.37 EPS. Research analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 2nd. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 55.36%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,176 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $149.80, for a total value of $1,074,964.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 102,893 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,413,371.40. This represents a 6.52% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 24,332 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction on Monday, November 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $149.10, for a total transaction of $3,627,901.20. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 38,146 shares of company stock worth $5,699,770. 0.33% of the stock is 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.