Texas Bank & Trust Co Takes Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Texas Bank & Trust Co bought a new stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 1,905 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $256,000.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of YUM. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter valued at $418,692,000. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 20.4% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,545,872 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $475,714,000 after buying an additional 601,361 shares in the last quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 31.7% in the 4th quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,880,379 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $252,272,000 after buying an additional 452,339 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter valued at $59,289,000. Finally, Man Group plc boosted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 602.1% in the 4th quarter. Man Group plc now owns 364,836 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $48,946,000 after buying an additional 312,871 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. Guggenheim upped their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $155.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $148.00 to $151.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded shares of Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $140.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. TD Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $140.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Sixteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $156.70.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 30,604 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.46, for a total value of $4,880,113.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 160,296 shares in the company, valued at $25,560,800.16. This trade represents a 16.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 8,638 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.36, for a total transaction of $1,367,913.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 2,970 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $470,329.20. This represents a 74.41% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 62,334 shares of company stock worth $9,734,737 in the last 90 days. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Shares of Yum! Brands stock opened at $147.74 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $41.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.30, a PEG ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.77. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $122.13 and a one year high of $163.30. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $149.76 and a two-hundred day moving average of $142.05.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced its quarterly 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 business had revenue of $1.79 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.85 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 19.68% and a negative return on equity of 20.33%. The business’s revenue was up 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.15 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 27th will be issued a $0.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 27th. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.92%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 56.57%.

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.