KBC Group NV Sells 57,695 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

KBC Group NV reduced its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 26.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 161,134 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 57,695 shares during the period. KBC Group NV owned 0.06% of Yum! Brands worth $21,618,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.7% during the second quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 11,766 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,559,000 after buying an additional 308 shares during the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board raised its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 70.8% during the 2nd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 10,853 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,438,000 after acquiring an additional 4,499 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP acquired a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the 2nd quarter valued at $7,645,000. Ascent Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 6.8% in the 2nd quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 2,185 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $289,000 after purchasing an additional 140 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Creative Planning grew its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 3.1% during the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 94,575 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $12,527,000 after purchasing an additional 2,803 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on YUM. Morgan Stanley reissued an “equal weight” rating and issued a $140.00 target price (down previously from $158.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded shares of Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $140.00 to $135.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Argus upgraded shares of Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, December 31st. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $144.89.

Yum! Brands Trading Down 1.3 %

NYSE:YUM opened at $129.15 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $132.89 and a 200 day simple moving average of $133.60. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $122.13 and a 1-year high of $143.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $36.04 billion, a PE ratio of 24.14, a P/E/G ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 1.11.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 negative return on equity of 18.93% and a net margin of 21.13%. The firm had revenue of $1.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.90 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.44 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced 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. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 2nd. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is presently 50.09%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In other 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,474,708.10. This represents a 2.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

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.