3,685 Shares in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM Bought by Kepler Cheuvreux Suisse SA

Kepler Cheuvreux Suisse SA bought a new stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 3,685 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $573,000.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 8.0% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,861 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,055,000 after purchasing an additional 583 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP increased its holdings 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 increased its holdings in Yum! Brands by 10.0% during the second quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 117,824 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $17,447,000 after buying an additional 10,755 shares during the last quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina raised its position 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 during the period. Finally, HUB Investment Partners LLC raised its position in 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 period. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Aaron Powell sold 6,001 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.42, for a total transaction of $962,680.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 12,003 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,925,521.26. This represents a 33.33% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 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 dated Tuesday, May 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.68, for a total value of $464,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 3,140 shares in the company, valued at $485,695.20. This trade represents a 48.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 12,423 shares of company stock valued at $1,953,721. Company insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on YUM shares. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Tuesday, June 16th. Weiss Ratings cut Yum! Brands from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $180.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Tuesday, June 16th. Morgan Stanley raised Yum! Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $180.00 to $185.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $165.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $176.12.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Shares of Yum! Brands stock opened at $164.20 on Monday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $137.33 and a fifty-two week high of $169.39. The company has a market capitalization of $45.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.48, a P/E/G ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a fifty day moving average of $153.86 and a 200 day moving average of $156.45.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The restaurant operator reported $1.50 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $2.06 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.04 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.30 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 6.75 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Tuesday, June 16th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the restaurant operator to purchase up to 9.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

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 given a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date 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 presently 48.39%.

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.