Cullinan Associates Inc. Cuts Stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Cullinan Associates Inc. trimmed its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 30.2% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 29,837 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 12,883 shares during the period. Cullinan Associates Inc.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $4,003,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Toronto Dominion Bank boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 15.5% in the 3rd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 127,446 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $17,805,000 after buying an additional 17,133 shares during the period. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the third quarter worth about $1,262,000. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its stake in Yum! Brands by 3.1% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 689,631 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $96,348,000 after acquiring an additional 20,966 shares in the last quarter. Infusive Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 15.1% in the 3rd quarter. Infusive Asset Management Inc. now owns 43,419 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $6,066,000 after purchasing an additional 5,684 shares in the last quarter. Finally, RFG Advisory LLC grew its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 222.8% during the 4th quarter. RFG Advisory LLC now owns 7,146 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $959,000 after purchasing an additional 4,932 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

YUM has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Bank of America lowered their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $140.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Redburn Atlantic downgraded shares of Yum! Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $140.00 target price (down previously from $158.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $141.00 target price (down previously from $153.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $144.89.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,059 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.94, for a total value of $959,600.46. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 149,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,307,396.90. This trade represents a 4.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of YUM stock opened at $131.58 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $36.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.59, a PEG ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 1.11. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $122.13 and a 1-year high of $143.20. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $132.60 and a 200-day simple moving average of $133.61.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.37 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.41 by ($0.04). Yum! Brands had a net margin of 21.13% and a negative return on equity of 18.93%. The firm had revenue of $1.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.90 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.44 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd were given a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.04%. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is 50.09%.

Yum! Brands Company 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.