IFP Advisors Inc Boosts Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

IFP Advisors Inc increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 135.3% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 10,506 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,041 shares during the quarter. IFP Advisors Inc’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $1,657,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. GRIMES & Co WEALTH MANAGEMENT LLC raised its stake in Yum! Brands by 2.3% during the third quarter. GRIMES & Co WEALTH MANAGEMENT LLC now owns 3,197 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $486,000 after purchasing an additional 71 shares during the period. Lakeshore Capital Group Inc. grew its position in Yum! Brands by 1.8% in the third quarter. Lakeshore Capital Group Inc. now owns 4,085 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $621,000 after acquiring an additional 73 shares during the period. Spirepoint Private Client LLC increased its stake in Yum! Brands by 5.4% during the third quarter. Spirepoint Private Client LLC now owns 1,424 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $216,000 after acquiring an additional 73 shares during the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Yum! Brands by 3.1% during the third quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,468 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $375,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Financial Engines Advisors L.L.C. raised its position in Yum! Brands by 2.2% in the third quarter. Financial Engines Advisors L.L.C. now owns 3,527 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $536,000 after purchasing an additional 76 shares during the period. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on YUM. Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Piper Sandler restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Friday, December 5th. Gordon Haskett raised shares of Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 8th. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated a “positive” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Evercore restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $190.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Friday, February 13th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $174.50.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 242 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.02, for a total transaction of $40,176.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 65,297 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,840,607.94. The trade was a 0.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 1,612 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $164.63, for a total transaction of $265,383.56. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders sold 14,138 shares of company stock worth $2,289,990. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 0.1%

NYSE:YUM opened at $156.42 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $159.42 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $152.35. The company has a market cap of $43.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.64. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $137.33 and a 52 week high of $169.39.

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 $2.52 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, analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

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

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.