Banque Cantonale Vaudoise Decreases Stock Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Banque Cantonale Vaudoise trimmed its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 55.0% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 15,234 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 18,609 shares during the period. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $2,368,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Steph & Co. boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 107.5% during the 1st quarter. Steph & Co. now owns 166 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 86 shares during the last quarter. Wiser Advisor Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the third quarter worth $28,000. MV Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter worth $28,000. Community Bank N.A. acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands in the third quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, Jessup Wealth Management Inc acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:YUM opened at $150.98 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $153.88 and its two-hundred day moving average is $155.88. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $137.33 and a 1-year high of $169.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $41.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 0.57.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The restaurant operator reported $1.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by $0.11. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 20.48% and a negative return on equity of 23.51%. The firm had revenue of $2.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.04 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.30 earnings per share. Yum! Brands’s revenue was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 6.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 12th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 27th were issued a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 27th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.0%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.39%.

Yum! Brands announced that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Tuesday, June 16th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the restaurant operator to reacquire up to 9.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have weighed in on YUM shares. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Yum! Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $180.00 to $185.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. BMO Capital Markets restated a “market perform” rating and issued a $168.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, May 4th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Citigroup lifted their price target on Yum! Brands from $174.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $177.00 price objective on Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $176.12.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 270 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $148.14, for a total value of $39,997.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 64,282 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,522,735.48. This trade represents a 0.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Sean Tresvant sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.68, for a total transaction of $464,040.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 3,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $485,695.20. This trade represents a 48.86% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 5,895 shares of company stock worth $906,499. 0.14% of the stock is owned by company 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.