Blue Trust Inc. Buys 577 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 11.3% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 5,703 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 577 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $845,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of YUM. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 1st quarter valued at $97,453,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 1.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 34,109,219 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $5,367,427,000 after purchasing an additional 483,918 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 2,288.1% during the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 502,267 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $74,426,000 after acquiring an additional 481,235 shares during the period. Platinum Investment Management Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the 2nd quarter worth about $64,352,000. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 28.5% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,940,044 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $305,286,000 after acquiring an additional 430,511 shares during the period. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 12,220 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $148.24, for a total value of $1,811,492.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 275 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $152.59, for a total transaction of $41,962.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,755 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $267,795.45. This represents a 13.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 36,195 shares of company stock valued at $5,348,137. Insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

YUM has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. TD Cowen reduced their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $158.00 to $156.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 5th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $164.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Tuesday, August 5th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $153.00 to $151.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $170.00 to $165.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Finally, Melius initiated coverage on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, July 14th. They set a “buy” rating and a $200.00 price objective for the company. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and fourteen have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $161.48.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 0.8%

Shares of YUM stock opened at $141.53 on Friday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $122.13 and a 12-month high of $163.30. The company has a market capitalization of $39.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.92, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.72. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $147.04 and a 200 day moving average price of $146.80.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 firm had revenue of $1.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.94 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.35 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 12th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 2nd were paid a $0.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 2nd. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.0%. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is currently 56.02%.

Yum! Brands Company 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.