Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM Shares Sold by Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC

Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC trimmed its holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 38.1% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 16,202 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 9,965 shares during the quarter. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $2,451,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Augustine Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Augustine Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,287 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $497,000 after purchasing an additional 64 shares during the last quarter. GRIMES & Co WEALTH MANAGEMENT LLC increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.3% during the 3rd 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 last quarter. Lakeshore Capital Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Lakeshore Capital Group Inc. now owns 4,085 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $621,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares during the last quarter. Spirepoint Private Client LLC raised its holdings in Yum! Brands by 5.4% in the 3rd quarter. Spirepoint Private Client LLC now owns 1,424 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $216,000 after buying an additional 73 shares during the period. Finally, Diversified Trust Co. raised its holdings in Yum! Brands by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Diversified Trust Co. now owns 3,589 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $543,000 after buying an additional 73 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

NYSE YUM opened at $156.10 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $43.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.13, a P/E/G ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.66. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $159.38 and a two-hundred day moving average of $153.02. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $137.33 and a 1-year high of $169.39.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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). Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 22.42% and a net margin of 18.98%.The business had revenue of $2.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.45 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.61 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate 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 was paid on Friday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 20th were issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 20th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 54.05%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In other news, CEO Aaron Powell sold 12,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 owned 14,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,365,096. This represents a 45.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 1,612 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $164.63, for a total value of $265,383.56. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 14,138 shares of company stock valued at $2,289,990 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

YUM has been the subject of several research analyst reports. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. BMO Capital Markets reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $165.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Oppenheimer cut shares of Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 6th. Gordon Haskett upgraded shares of Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 8th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on Yum! Brands from $170.00 to $171.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Yum! Brands currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $174.50.

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.