Cibc World Market Inc. Lowers Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Cibc World Market Inc. decreased its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 29.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 40,925 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 17,106 shares during the quarter. Cibc World Market Inc.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $6,221,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 34,557,612 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $5,120,747,000 after acquiring an additional 448,393 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.3% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,131,263 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,945,791,000 after buying an additional 297,641 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.7% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,216,042 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,217,826,000 after acquiring an additional 218,046 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the 2nd quarter valued at about $602,551,000. Finally, Loomis Sayles & Co. L P lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.1% in the 2nd quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 3,844,806 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $569,723,000 after buying an additional 40,757 shares during the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently commented on YUM shares. Evercore raised shares of Yum! Brands from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the company from $165.00 to $180.00 in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $190.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company reissued a “positive” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $179.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Wednesday, January 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $177.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Fourteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $174.29.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 1.8%

NYSE:YUM opened at $160.38 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $44.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.66. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $137.33 and a 52 week high of $165.32. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $154.43 and its two-hundred day moving average is $149.61.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.76 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $2.51 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 was up 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.61 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 20th will be given a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 20th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.9%. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is presently 54.05%.

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

In other news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 276 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $153.17, for a total transaction of $42,274.92. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Aaron Powell sold 12,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $161.44, for a total value of $1,937,280.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 14,650 shares in the company, valued at $2,365,096. The trade was a 45.03% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 36,608 shares of company stock valued at $5,607,456 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

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.