Allianz Asset Management GmbH Sells 127,235 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Allianz Asset Management GmbH cut its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 72.5% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 48,229 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 127,235 shares during the period. Allianz Asset Management GmbH’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $7,331,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 8.0% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,861 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,055,000 after purchasing an additional 583 shares in the last quarter. Callan Family Office LLC raised its position in Yum! Brands by 326.1% in the 2nd quarter. Callan Family Office LLC now owns 7,043 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,044,000 after purchasing an additional 5,390 shares during the last quarter. Aberdeen Group plc raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 4.8% in the second quarter. Aberdeen Group plc now owns 249,909 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $37,032,000 after buying an additional 11,465 shares during the last quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. lifted its position in Yum! Brands by 2.3% during the 2nd quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 11,622 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,722,000 after buying an additional 263 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Yum! Brands by 11.9% during the 2nd quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 8,011 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,187,000 after acquiring an additional 853 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently commented on YUM shares. Gordon Haskett raised shares of Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 8th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Yum! Brands from $165.00 to $176.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, December 29th. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $179.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Wednesday, January 7th. Finally, Oppenheimer lowered shares of Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 6th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $172.50.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Aaron Powell sold 12,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $161.44, for a total transaction of $1,937,280.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 14,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,365,096. This trade represents a 45.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 24,332 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $149.10, for a total value of $3,627,901.20. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 36,608 shares of company stock worth $5,607,456 over the last ninety days. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Yum! Brands stock opened at $158.80 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $44.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.61, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.66. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $153.34 and its 200 day simple moving average is $149.22. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $137.33 and a fifty-two week high of $163.60.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.73 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.76 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $2.51 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.45 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 18.98% and a negative return on equity of 22.42%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.61 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 20th. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 51.17%.

Yum! Brands Company Profile

Yum! Brands, Inc (NYSE: YUM) is a global quick-service restaurant company that develops, operates and franchises a portfolio of well-known restaurant brands. The company’s principal brands are KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, each focused on distinct product categories—KFC on fried chicken and related menu items, Pizza Hut on pizza and complementary offerings, and Taco Bell on Mexican-inspired quick-service food. Yum! is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky and was formed as Tricon Global Restaurants in 1997 when PepsiCo spun off its restaurant businesses, later adopting the Yum! Brands name.

The company’s operating model centers on brand development, system growth and franchising; a large portion of its restaurants are operated by independent franchisees, and Yum! generates revenue through franchise royalties and fees in addition to sales from company-operated locations.