Smartleaf Asset Management LLC Increases Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 20.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,609 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 275 shares during the period. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $215,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Cantillon Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 31.7% in the fourth quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,880,379 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $252,272,000 after purchasing an additional 452,339 shares during the last quarter. Sherman Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter valued at $112,000. Metis Global Partners LLC increased its position in Yum! Brands by 4.4% during the fourth quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 13,938 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,870,000 after buying an additional 588 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 14.7% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 63,491 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $8,518,000 after acquiring an additional 8,113 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SVB Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter valued at $1,151,000. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently weighed in on YUM. TD Securities boosted their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $151.00 to $164.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. TD Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $140.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein lowered Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $140.00 to $135.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Fourteen 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 presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $150.65.

Yum! Brands Trading Up 0.7 %

YUM opened at $159.53 on Thursday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $122.13 and a twelve month high of $161.28. The firm has a market cap of $44.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.56, a PEG ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $137.81 and a 200 day simple moving average of $136.04.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st will be given a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.78%. This is a positive change from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 21st. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is presently 54.41%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.06, for a total transaction of $522,883.90. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 149,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,474,708.10. This trade represents a 2.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, VP David Eric Russell sold 5,000 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.66, for a total transaction of $793,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 11,960 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,897,573.60. This trade represents a 29.48 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 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.