Arbejdsmarkedets Tillaegspension Sells 3,685 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Arbejdsmarkedets Tillaegspension decreased its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 2.3% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 158,920 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 3,685 shares during the period. Arbejdsmarkedets Tillaegspension’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $24,709,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in YUM. Brighton Jones LLC increased its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 8.0% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,861 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,055,000 after purchasing an additional 583 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP raised its stake in Yum! Brands by 124.5% during the second quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 151,316 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $22,422,000 after buying an additional 83,916 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 10.0% in the second quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 117,824 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $17,447,000 after acquiring an additional 10,755 shares in the last quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 1.0% in the second quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 130,205 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $19,294,000 after acquiring an additional 1,256 shares in the last quarter. Finally, HUB Investment Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 59.1% in the second quarter. HUB Investment Partners LLC now owns 2,319 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $344,000 after acquiring an additional 861 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on YUM shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $177.00 price target on Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Yum! Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $180.00 to $185.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. BMO Capital Markets reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $168.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Monday, May 4th. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Tuesday, June 16th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $165.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, April 20th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $174.81.

Insider Activity

In other Yum! Brands news, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 1,837 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $152.00, for a total value of $279,224.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 3,497 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $531,544. The trade was a 34.44% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Sean Tresvant sold 3,000 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.68, for a total transaction of $464,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, 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. Insiders sold 12,423 shares of company stock valued at $1,953,721 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

NYSE YUM opened at $161.81 on Tuesday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $137.33 and a one year high of $170.14. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $154.55 and a 200 day moving average of $156.90. The company has a market capitalization of $44.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.10, a PEG ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.56.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The restaurant operator reported $1.50 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $2.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.04 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 23.51% and a net margin of 20.48%.Yum! Brands’s revenue was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.30 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 6.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 27th were issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 27th. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is presently 48.39%.

Yum! Brands declared that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Tuesday, June 16th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the restaurant operator to purchase up to 9.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

About Yum! Brands

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.