First Trust Advisors LP Sells 33,754 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

First Trust Advisors LP cut its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 7.5% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 418,752 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 33,754 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $65,108,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC now owns 3,292 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $498,000 after purchasing an additional 63 shares in the last quarter. Econ Financial Services Corp grew its stake in Yum! Brands by 0.4% in the first quarter. Econ Financial Services Corp now owns 15,536 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,416,000 after purchasing an additional 63 shares in the last quarter. Augustine Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in Yum! Brands by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Augustine Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,287 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $497,000 after purchasing an additional 64 shares in the last quarter. Essex Financial Services Inc. increased its holdings in Yum! Brands by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Essex Financial Services Inc. now owns 6,667 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,009,000 after buying an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hilltop Holdings Inc. increased its holdings in Yum! Brands by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Hilltop Holdings Inc. now owns 2,525 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $382,000 after buying an additional 68 shares during the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

NYSE:YUM opened at $148.82 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $41.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.00, a P/E/G ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 0.56. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $154.06 and a 200 day simple moving average of $156.71. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $137.33 and a 12-month high of $170.14.

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 the consensus estimate of $1.39 by $0.11. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 23.51% and a net margin of 20.48%.The firm had revenue of $2.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.04 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.30 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 6.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase 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 buy up to 9.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

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

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In related news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 277 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.42, for a total value of $44,436.34. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 483 shares in the company, valued at $77,482.86. This trade represents a 36.45% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 250 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.42, for a total transaction of $40,105.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 64,032 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,272,013.44. The trade was a 0.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 12,423 shares of company stock worth $1,953,721 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on YUM. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $177.00 target price on Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Yum! Brands from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $165.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, April 20th. BMO Capital Markets restated a “market perform” rating and issued a $168.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $175.00 to $178.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Sunday, July 12th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Yum! Brands currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $174.81.

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.