Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Sells 9,087 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund reduced its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 7.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 107,569 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 9,087 shares during the period. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $16,350,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.3% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 695,059 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $105,649,000 after acquiring an additional 8,888 shares during the period. Amundi raised its stake in Yum! Brands by 115.8% during the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 1,311,849 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $197,013,000 after purchasing an additional 703,891 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 34.3% in the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,789,728 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $413,382,000 after purchasing an additional 713,167 shares during the period. Retirement Systems of Alabama grew its position in Yum! Brands by 19.7% in the 3rd quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 347,395 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $52,804,000 after purchasing an additional 57,112 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 126.1% during the 2nd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 29,192 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $4,326,000 after purchasing an additional 16,282 shares during the period. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on YUM shares. Oppenheimer cut shares of Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 6th. Citigroup raised their price objective on Yum! Brands from $170.00 to $171.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Evercore raised Yum! Brands from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $165.00 to $180.00 in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $160.00 target price on Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, November 17th. Finally, Barclays set a $185.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $173.50.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of YUM stock opened at $163.10 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $154.12 and its 200 day simple moving average is $149.47. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $137.33 and a one year high of $163.78. The firm has a market cap of $45.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.39, a P/E/G ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 0.66.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.76 by ($0.03). Yum! Brands had a net margin of 18.98% and a negative return on equity of 22.42%. The company had revenue of $2.51 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.45 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.61 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 20th will be given a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.8%. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 20th. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 51.17%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Aaron Powell sold 12,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly owned 14,650 shares in the company, valued at $2,365,096. This represents a 45.03% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 276 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction on Monday, December 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $153.17, for a total value of $42,274.92. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 36,608 shares of company stock valued at $5,607,456. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Yum! Brands 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.