Brevan Howard Capital Management LP Makes New $420,000 Investment in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Brevan Howard Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 3,133 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $420,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC purchased a new position in Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter worth $598,000. Caxton Associates LP grew its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 79.6% during the fourth quarter. Caxton Associates LP now owns 14,730 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,976,000 after buying an additional 6,529 shares during the last quarter. BW Gestao de Investimentos Ltda. purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $4,213,000. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. lifted its position in Yum! Brands by 103.6% during the 4th quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 3,797 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $509,000 after acquiring an additional 110,000 shares during the period. Finally, Benjamin Edwards Inc. grew its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 19.8% in the 4th quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 4,831 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $649,000 after purchasing an additional 799 shares during the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 5,139 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.70, for a total transaction of $753,891.30. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 157,893 shares in the company, valued at $23,162,903.10. This represents a 3.15 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, VP David Eric Russell sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.66, for a total transaction of $793,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 11,960 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,897,573.60. The trade was a 29.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 55,271 shares of company stock worth $8,706,576. 0.33% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on YUM shares. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $151.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $150.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Robert W. Baird cut their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $176.00 to $174.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 7th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Yum! Brands from $130.00 to $148.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Sixteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Yum! Brands currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $156.70.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 0.5 %

NYSE YUM opened at $147.19 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $40.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.77. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $122.13 and a fifty-two week high of $163.30. The business has a fifty day moving average of $151.04 and a 200-day moving average of $141.53.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.29 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $1.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.85 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 19.68% and a negative return on equity of 20.33%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.15 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current year.

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.