Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. Takes Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 166,001 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $26,537,000.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of YUM. Steph & Co. grew its position in Yum! Brands by 107.5% in the 1st quarter. Steph & Co. now owns 166 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 86 shares during the last quarter. Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the second quarter valued at $27,000. MV Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Yum! Brands during the 1st quarter valued at about $28,000. Finally, Wiser Advisor Group LLC purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at about $28,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 270 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $148.14, for a total value of $39,997.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 64,282 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,522,735.48. This represents a 0.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 3,494 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.00, for a total value of $552,052.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 3 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $474. The trade was a 99.91% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 19,043 shares of company stock valued at $2,978,180 in the last 90 days. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Yum! Brands stock opened at $157.42 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $153.48 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $155.97. The company has a market cap of $42.96 billion, a PE ratio of 19.80, a PEG ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 0.55. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $137.33 and a fifty-two week high of $170.14.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.58 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $2.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.18 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 25.42% and a negative return on equity of 24.57%. Yum! Brands’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.44 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 6.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, June 16th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the restaurant operator to reacquire up to 9.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

YUM has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets restated a “market perform” rating and issued a $168.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Weiss Ratings lowered Yum! Brands from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $165.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Yum! Brands has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $174.65.

Yum! Brands Profile

Yum! Brands, Inc (NYSE: YUM) is a global quick-service restaurant company that develops, operates and franchises a portfolio of well-known restaurant brands. The company’s principal brands are KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, each focused on distinct product categories—KFC on fried chicken and related menu items, Pizza Hut on pizza and complementary offerings, and Taco Bell on Mexican-inspired quick-service food. Yum! is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky and was formed as Tricon Global Restaurants in 1997 when PepsiCo spun off its restaurant businesses, later adopting the Yum! Brands name.

The company’s operating model centers on brand development, system growth and franchising; a large portion of its restaurants are operated by independent franchisees, and Yum! generates revenue through franchise royalties and fees in addition to sales from company-operated locations.