Mackenzie Financial Corp Buys 20,193 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Mackenzie Financial Corp grew its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 53.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 57,997 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 20,193 shares during the quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $7,578,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Fortitude Family Office LLC bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter worth $34,000. Clear Street Markets LLC increased its position in Yum! Brands by 28,400.0% in the fourth quarter. Clear Street Markets LLC now owns 285 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 284 shares during the last quarter. KB Financial Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands in the second quarter worth $41,000. Finally, Legacy Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands in the third quarter worth $40,000. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 0.5 %

Yum! Brands stock opened at $138.50 on Friday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $115.53 and a 52 week high of $143.24. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $137.22 and a 200 day simple moving average of $130.17. The stock has a market cap of $38.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.78, a PEG ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.10.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The restaurant operator reported $1.26 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.39 by ($0.13). Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 17.76% and a net margin of 22.57%. The business had revenue of $2.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.11 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.31 earnings per share. Yum! Brands’s quarterly revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 8th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 21st were given a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.94%. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.61. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 20th. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is presently 47.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,078 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.37, for a total transaction of $979,382.86. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 172,128 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,817,351.36. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,078 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.37, for a total transaction of $979,382.86. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 172,128 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,817,351.36. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP David Eric Russell sold 9,919 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.63, for a total value of $1,285,799.97. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 18,661 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,419,025.43. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 24,064 shares of company stock worth $3,228,698 over the last ninety days. 0.31% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

YUM has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $135.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Argus reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded Yum! Brands from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $150.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Guggenheim raised their target price on Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Yum! Brands from $133.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $145.00.

About Yum! Brands

Yum! Brands, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, develops, operates, and franchises quick service restaurants worldwide. The company operates through the KFC Division, the Taco Bell Division, the Pizza Hut Division, and the Habit Burger Grill Division segments. It also operates restaurants under the KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and The Habit Burger Grill brands, which specialize in chicken, pizza, made-to-order chargrilled burgers, sandwiches, Mexican-style food categories, and other food products.