Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH Purchases 6,001 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH increased its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 1.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 327,910 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 6,001 shares during the quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH owned 0.12% of Yum! Brands worth $49,606,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in YUM. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.3% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 695,059 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $105,649,000 after acquiring an additional 8,888 shares during the last quarter. Amundi grew its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 115.8% in the second quarter. Amundi now owns 1,311,849 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $197,013,000 after purchasing an additional 703,891 shares during the last quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama increased its holdings in Yum! Brands by 19.7% in the third quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 347,395 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $52,804,000 after purchasing an additional 57,112 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in Yum! Brands by 34.3% in the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,789,728 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $413,382,000 after purchasing an additional 713,167 shares during the period. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its position in Yum! Brands by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 267,162 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $40,609,000 after purchasing an additional 11,532 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Trading Down 1.8%

Shares of YUM opened at $156.27 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $159.46 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $152.69. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $137.33 and a 12 month high of $169.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $43.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 0.64.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.73 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.76 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $2.52 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.45 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 22.42% and a net margin of 18.98%.The business’s revenue was up 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.61 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict 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. Investors of record on Friday, February 20th were paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. This is an increase from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 20th. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is 54.05%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have commented on the company. Oppenheimer downgraded Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 6th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Yum! Brands from $165.00 to $176.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $165.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Barclays set a $185.00 target price on Yum! Brands and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $190.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $174.50.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Aaron Powell sold 12,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $161.44, for a total value of $1,937,280.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 14,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,365,096. The trade was a 45.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 284 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.02, for a total value of $47,149.68. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders sold 14,138 shares of company stock worth $2,289,990. 0.33% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.