Kovack Advisors Inc. Decreases Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Kovack Advisors Inc. reduced its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 5.7% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,965 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 238 shares during the quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $554,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Crewe Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Yum! Brands in the first quarter valued at about $28,000. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 957.1% in the third quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. now owns 222 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 201 shares during the last quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in Yum! Brands by 43.6% during the second quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 270 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 82 shares during the period. Kimelman & Baird LLC purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands in the second quarter worth $37,000. Finally, Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 3,088.9% in the second quarter. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC now owns 287 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 278 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on Yum! Brands from $135.00 to $130.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Loop Capital lowered their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $143.00 to $140.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Bank of America cut their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $137.00 to $144.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Yum! Brands from $150.00 to $154.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Twelve 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 company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $145.94.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Weir Mirian M. Graddick sold 1,309 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.40, for a total transaction of $179,856.60. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,233 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $169,414.20. This trade represents a 51.49 % 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 David W. Gibbs sold 7,005 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.43, for a total value of $941,682.15. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 152,634 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,518,588.62. This represents a 4.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 15,319 shares of company stock valued at $2,063,221. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Yum! Brands stock opened at $136.74 on Friday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $123.70 and a fifty-two week high of $143.20. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $134.38 and its 200-day moving average price is $134.64. The stock has a market cap of $38.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 1.10.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.41 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $1.83 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.90 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 18.93% and a net margin of 21.13%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.44 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Profile

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.