Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM Holdings Decreased by Banque Cantonale Vaudoise

Banque Cantonale Vaudoise lessened its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 55.0% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 15,234 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 18,609 shares during the quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $2,368,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Hsbc Holdings PLC raised its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 5.9% in the 4th quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 569,676 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $86,197,000 after buying an additional 31,836 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in Yum! Brands by 5.4% during the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 584,953 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $88,030,000 after acquiring an additional 30,075 shares during the period. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd bought a new stake in Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter worth about $1,264,000. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at about $24,786,000. Finally, Ethos Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,372,000. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $174.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Tuesday, June 16th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $177.00 target price on Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut Yum! Brands from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $176.12.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of YUM stock opened at $150.98 on Friday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $137.33 and a fifty-two week high of $169.39. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $153.88 and its two-hundred day moving average is $155.88. The firm has a market cap of $41.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.35, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 0.57.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The restaurant operator reported $1.50 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.39 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $2.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.04 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 23.51% and a net margin of 20.48%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.30 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 6.75 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 12th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 27th were paid a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 27th. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is presently 48.39%.

Yum! Brands announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In related news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 261 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $148.14, for a total value of $38,664.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 483 shares in the company, valued at approximately $71,551.62. This represents a 35.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 270 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $148.14, for a total transaction of $39,997.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 64,282 shares in the company, valued at $9,522,735.48. The trade was a 0.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 5,895 shares of company stock worth $906,499 in the last 90 days. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Yum! Brands

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.