Larson Financial Group LLC Purchases 1,458 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Larson Financial Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 43.9% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,782 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,458 shares during the period. Larson Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $668,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 3.4% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 3,164,159 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $419,123,000 after buying an additional 104,328 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 0.4% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,632,862 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $228,127,000 after acquiring an additional 6,537 shares during the last quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 3.8% during the third quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,428,040 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $199,511,000 after acquiring an additional 51,690 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 6.7% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 930,402 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $123,243,000 after acquiring an additional 58,437 shares during the period. Finally, Swiss National Bank boosted its position in Yum! Brands by 0.3% in the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 835,800 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $116,770,000 after purchasing an additional 2,800 shares during the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

YUM has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Bank of America lowered their target price on Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. TD Cowen reissued a “hold” rating and set a $145.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $150.00 to $154.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Yum! Brands from $137.00 to $144.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $145.94.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Yum! Brands stock opened at $137.05 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $38.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.62, a PEG ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 1.10. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $123.70 and a fifty-two week high of $143.20. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $134.50 and its 200-day moving average price is $134.46.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.37 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.41 by ($0.04). Yum! Brands had a net margin of 21.13% and a negative return on equity of 18.93%. The business had revenue of $1.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.90 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.44 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be paid a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.96%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 50.09%.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,005 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.43, for a total value of $941,682.15. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 155,883 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,955,351.69. This represents a 4.30 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders have sold 21,069 shares of company stock valued at $2,842,965 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

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.