Commerce Bank Sells 4,543 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Commerce Bank lowered its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 4.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 95,797 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 4,543 shares during the period. Commerce Bank’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $12,852,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Yum! Brands by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,604,632 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,021,194,000 after acquiring an additional 163,462 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $418,692,000. FMR LLC increased its stake in Yum! Brands by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,521,583 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $338,296,000 after purchasing an additional 24,681 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in Yum! Brands by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,355,367 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $315,996,000 after buying an additional 94,026 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 12.0% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,284,171 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $306,444,000 after buying an additional 244,264 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on YUM. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $176.00 to $174.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 7th. UBS Group increased their target price on Yum! Brands from $156.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Yum! Brands from $146.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Guggenheim increased their price objective on Yum! Brands from $155.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein cut Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their target price for the company from $140.00 to $135.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Sixteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $152.71.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Yum! Brands news, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 8,638 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.36, for a total transaction of $1,367,913.68. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 2,970 shares in the company, valued at $470,329.20. This trade represents a 74.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 30,604 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.46, for a total value of $4,880,113.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 160,296 shares in the company, valued at $25,560,800.16. The trade was a 16.03 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 55,271 shares of company stock valued at $8,706,576. 0.33% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Yum! Brands stock opened at $143.13 on Friday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $122.13 and a fifty-two week high of $163.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $39.95 billion, a PE ratio of 27.42, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.90. The company’s 50-day moving average is $152.19 and its 200-day moving average is $140.18.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st were given a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.98%. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 54.41%.

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.