AdvisorShares Investments LLC Sells 3,548 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

AdvisorShares Investments LLC lowered its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 85.7% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 594 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 3,548 shares during the period. AdvisorShares Investments LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $92,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Capital International Investors grew its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 20.0% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 19,419,826 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,938,139,000 after buying an additional 3,240,190 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,164,814 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,991,573,000 after acquiring an additional 124,720 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,800,382 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,334,427,000 after acquiring an additional 121,304 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter valued at $706,799,000. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased its position in Yum! Brands by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 4,471,127 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $676,392,000 after purchasing an additional 104,512 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 250 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.42, for a total value of $40,105.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 64,032 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,272,013.44. The trade was a 0.39% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 1,837 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $152.00, for a total transaction of $279,224.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 3,497 shares in the company, valued at approximately $531,544. The trade was a 34.44% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 12,423 shares of company stock worth $1,953,721 in the last three months. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on YUM shares. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Yum! Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $180.00 to $185.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $177.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Tuesday, June 16th. BMO Capital Markets reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $168.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Tuesday, June 16th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $176.12.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Shares of Yum! Brands stock opened at $164.20 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $45.26 billion, a PE ratio of 26.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.56. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $137.33 and a 52-week high of $169.39. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $153.86 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $156.45.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The restaurant operator reported $1.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.39 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $2.06 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.04 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 20.48% and a negative return on equity of 23.51%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.30 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 6.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 12th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 27th were given a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 27th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.8%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.39%.

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.