McClarren Financial Advisors Inc. Takes Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

McClarren Financial Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 898 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $120,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in YUM. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt raised its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 408.2% during the third quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 747 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $104,000 after acquiring an additional 600 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB increased its holdings in Yum! Brands by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 153,431 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $21,436,000 after purchasing an additional 736 shares during the period. Vontobel Holding Ltd. raised its position in Yum! Brands by 7.5% during the 3rd quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 9,957 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,391,000 after purchasing an additional 692 shares during the last quarter. B.O.S.S. Retirement Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 14.0% in the 3rd quarter. B.O.S.S. Retirement Advisors LLC now owns 26,826 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $3,748,000 after buying an additional 3,301 shares during the period. Finally, ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. grew its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 8.2% in the 3rd quarter. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 135,250 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $18,896,000 after buying an additional 10,282 shares during the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.06, for a total value of $522,883.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 149,385 shares in the company, valued at $20,474,708.10. The trade was a 2.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Oppenheimer upped their target price on Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Redburn Atlantic lowered shares of Yum! Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Argus raised shares of Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, December 31st. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $162.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $141.00 price objective (down from $153.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $147.37.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

NYSE:YUM opened at $146.57 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $132.73 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $134.21. The firm has a market cap of $40.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.08, a P/E/G ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.10. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $122.13 and a fifty-two week high of $148.20.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Investors of record on Friday, February 21st will be issued a $0.71 dividend. This is a positive change from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.94%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 21st. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is presently 51.34%.

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.