Horizon Investments LLC Has $944,000 Stock Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Horizon Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 3.3% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,996 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 189 shares during the quarter. Horizon Investments LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $944,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in YUM. Brighton Jones LLC increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 8.0% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,861 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,055,000 after purchasing an additional 583 shares during the last quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 9.5% during the 4th quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 23,661 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $3,176,000 after acquiring an additional 2,054 shares during the last quarter. Mariner LLC increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Mariner LLC now owns 60,392 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $8,101,000 after acquiring an additional 1,316 shares during the last quarter. Jump Financial LLC increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 68.5% during the 4th quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 5,508 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $739,000 after acquiring an additional 2,239 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 944,749 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $126,746,000 after acquiring an additional 19,210 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

NYSE:YUM opened at $148.19 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $145.55 and a 200-day moving average price of $147.53. The company has a market cap of $41.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.23, a PEG ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.73. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $122.13 and a fifty-two week high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.44 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by ($0.02). Yum! Brands had a net margin of 18.11% and a negative return on equity of 21.01%. The company had revenue of $1.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.94 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.35 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 263 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $139.92, for a total transaction of $36,798.96. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,755 shares in the company, valued at $245,559.60. This represents a 13.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Weir Mirian M. Graddick sold 2,038 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $145.30, for a total value of $296,121.40. Following the sale, the director owned 1,233 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $179,154.90. This represents a 62.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 9,958 shares of company stock worth $1,455,725 in the last ninety days. 0.33% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. TD Securities reissued a “hold” rating and set a $158.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Redburn Atlantic raised Yum! Brands from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $145.00 to $177.00 in a report on Tuesday, June 10th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Yum! Brands from $153.00 to $151.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $185.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $155.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $161.23.

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.