Consolidated Planning Corp Boosts Stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Consolidated Planning Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 8.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,002 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 154 shares during the period. Consolidated Planning Corp’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $269,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC now owns 2,165 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $290,000 after purchasing an additional 82 shares during the last quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Yum! Brands by 7.4% during the 3rd quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 1,329 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $186,000 after buying an additional 92 shares during the last quarter. Graypoint LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Graypoint LLC now owns 5,902 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $792,000 after buying an additional 97 shares during the period. Joel Isaacson & Co. LLC boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Joel Isaacson & Co. LLC now owns 4,927 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $688,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 52.1% in the fourth quarter. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. now owns 295 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $40,000 after acquiring an additional 101 shares during the period. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

YUM has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Morgan Stanley restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $140.00 target price (down from $158.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. UBS Group upped their price objective on Yum! Brands from $156.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Barclays upped their price target on Yum! Brands from $162.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $147.37.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 1.6 %

Shares of YUM stock opened at $148.92 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $132.90 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $134.30. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $122.13 and a 52 week high of $149.30. The stock has a market cap of $41.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.53, a PEG ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.10.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.91%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 21st. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 51.34%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.06, for a total transaction of $522,883.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,385 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,474,708.10. This represents a 2.49 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

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.