New York State Teachers Retirement System Cuts Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

New York State Teachers Retirement System lessened its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 5.0% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 214,057 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 11,196 shares during the quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $28,718,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands in the third quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. increased its position in Yum! Brands by 52.1% during the 4th quarter. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. now owns 295 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 101 shares in the last quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands in the third quarter valued at about $42,000. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates grew its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 649.0% during the fourth quarter. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates now owns 367 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $49,000 after acquiring an additional 318 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Albion Financial Group UT increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 24.7% during the fourth quarter. Albion Financial Group UT now owns 566 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $76,000 after acquiring an additional 112 shares in the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.06, for a total transaction of $522,883.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 149,385 shares in the company, valued at $20,474,708.10. This represents a 2.49 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on YUM. Redburn Atlantic downgraded shares of Yum! Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $140.00 to $135.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. UBS Group increased their price objective on Yum! Brands from $156.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Argus upgraded Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 31st. Finally, Bank of America reduced their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $147.37.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of Yum! Brands stock opened at $147.80 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $41.25 billion, a PE ratio of 28.31, a P/E/G ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.10. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $133.32 and a 200 day moving average price of $134.52. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $122.13 and a twelve month high of $149.30.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st will be given a dividend of $0.71 per share. This is a positive change from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 21st. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.92%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.34%.

Yum! Brands 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.