Brighton Jones LLC Acquires 583 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Brighton Jones LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 8.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 7,861 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 583 shares during the quarter. Brighton Jones LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $1,055,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 3.4% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 3,164,159 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $419,123,000 after purchasing an additional 104,328 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the 2nd quarter valued at about $7,645,000. Toronto Dominion Bank increased its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 15.5% in the third quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 127,446 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $17,805,000 after buying an additional 17,133 shares during the period. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the third quarter valued at about $1,262,000. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 3.1% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 689,631 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $96,348,000 after acquiring an additional 20,966 shares during the period. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Yum! Brands Trading Up 1.0 %

Yum! Brands stock opened at $128.31 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $35.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 1.11. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $132.96 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $133.51. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $122.13 and a 1-year high of $143.20.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced 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). The business had revenue of $1.83 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.90 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 21.13% and a negative return on equity of 18.93%. Yum! Brands’s revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.44 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.46 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd were issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.09%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 50.09%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have weighed in on YUM shares. Loop Capital decreased their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $143.00 to $140.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “equal weight” rating and set a $140.00 price objective (down from $158.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered shares of Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $140.00 to $135.00 in a report on Wednesday. Bank of America decreased their price target on Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Redburn Atlantic lowered Yum! Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $144.89.

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.06, for a total value of $522,883.90. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 149,385 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,474,708.10. This trade represents a 2.49 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Yum! Brands Company 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.