VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al Purchases New Stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 415,800 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $61,613,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Yum! Brands by 1.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 34,109,219 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $5,367,427,000 after buying an additional 483,918 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its stake in Yum! Brands by 2.6% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 2,098,801 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $330,267,000 after buying an additional 53,326 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc grew its stake in Yum! Brands by 1.4% during the 1st quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,954,145 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $307,504,000 after buying an additional 27,355 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in 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 buying an additional 430,511 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Yum! Brands by 1.4% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,700,298 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $267,559,000 after buying an additional 23,008 shares during the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 1.3%

Shares of NYSE YUM opened at $145.25 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 cap of $40.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.65, a P/E/G ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.72. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $147.14 and a 200-day simple moving average of $146.31.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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). The business had revenue of $1.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.94 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 21.01% and a net margin of 18.11%.The firm’s revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.35 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

YUM has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Piper Sandler increased their price target on Yum! Brands from $155.00 to $157.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. TD Cowen decreased their price target on Yum! Brands from $158.00 to $156.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on Yum! Brands from $153.00 to $151.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th. Finally, Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $167.00 price target (up previously from $165.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and fourteen have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $161.48.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In other news, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 12,220 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $148.24, for a total transaction of $1,811,492.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,176 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $149.80, for a total value of $1,074,964.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 102,893 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,413,371.40. This represents a 6.52% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 29,078 shares of company stock valued at $4,304,785. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.