Oxbow Advisors LLC Buys Shares of 23,548 Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Oxbow Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 23,548 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $3,764,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Steph & Co. grew its position in Yum! Brands by 107.5% in the first quarter. Steph & Co. now owns 166 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 86 shares in the last quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter valued at $28,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands during the first quarter valued at about $28,000. Wiser Advisor Group LLC purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands during the third quarter valued at about $28,000. Finally, Kelleher Financial Advisors bought a new stake in Yum! Brands during the second quarter worth about $29,000. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

YUM opened at $144.89 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $153.57 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $156.09. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $137.33 and a one year high of $170.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $39.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.22, a PEG ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 0.55.

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

Yum! Brands declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan 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 plans are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Aaron Powell sold 6,001 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.42, for a total transaction of $962,680.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 12,003 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,925,521.26. This trade represents a 33.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 277 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.42, for a total value of $44,436.34. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 483 shares in the company, valued at approximately $77,482.86. This represents a 36.45% 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 18,549 shares of company stock worth $2,890,168 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on YUM shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Yum! Brands from $170.00 to $160.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 4th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Yum! Brands from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. Argus dropped their target price on Yum! Brands from $185.00 to $180.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Citigroup upped their target price on Yum! Brands from $175.00 to $178.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Sunday, July 12th. Finally, UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price 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.