Retirement Planning Group LLC Invests $255,000 in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Retirement Planning Group LLC bought a new position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund bought 1,720 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $255,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in YUM. Brighton Jones LLC increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 8.0% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,861 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,055,000 after buying an additional 583 shares during the last quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 64.1% in the 1st quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 12,324 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,939,000 after buying an additional 4,812 shares during the last quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 6.7% in the 1st quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. now owns 1,846 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $290,000 after buying an additional 116 shares during the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 5.3% in the 1st quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 134,710 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $21,198,000 after buying an additional 6,793 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legacy Advisors LLC bought a new position in Yum! Brands during the 1st quarter valued at about $216,000. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In other news, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 12,220 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 275 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,755 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $267,795.45. The trade was a 13.55% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 29,078 shares of company stock worth $4,304,785 over the last quarter. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on YUM. Royal Bank Of Canada began coverage on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. They set a “sector perform” rating and a $165.00 price target on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $155.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. TD Cowen cut their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $158.00 to $156.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, August 5th. Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $167.00 price target (up from $165.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, August 4th. Finally, Barclays cut their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $164.00 to $163.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and thirteen have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $163.14.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Yum! Brands stock opened at $147.35 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $40.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.72. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $122.13 and a 1 year high of $163.30. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $147.46 and a two-hundred day moving average of $146.23.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released 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 company had revenue of $1.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.94 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 18.11% and a negative return on equity of 21.01%. Yum! Brands’s quarterly revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.35 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 12th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 2nd were given a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 2nd. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 56.02%.

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.