SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. Sells 723 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. lessened its stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 35.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,294 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 723 shares during the quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $174,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the third quarter worth $29,000. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. boosted its position in Yum! Brands by 957.1% in the third quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. now owns 222 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 201 shares during the last quarter. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. grew its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 52.1% during the 4th quarter. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. now owns 295 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 101 shares during the period. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the 3rd quarter valued at about $42,000. Finally, Global Wealth Strategies & Associates lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 649.0% in the 4th quarter. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates now owns 367 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $49,000 after purchasing an additional 318 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.06, for a total value of $522,883.90. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 149,385 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,474,708.10. The trade was a 2.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Loop Capital cut 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. Barclays upped their price objective on Yum! Brands from $162.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded 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 report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Argus upgraded Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday, December 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $140.00 price objective (down previously from $158.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Fourteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Yum! Brands presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $147.05.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE YUM opened at $143.49 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $40.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.49, a P/E/G ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.10. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $122.13 and a 52-week high of $144.71. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $132.28 and its two-hundred day moving average is $133.72.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.37 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.41 by ($0.04). Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 20.33% and a net margin of 19.68%. The firm had revenue of $1.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.90 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.44 earnings per share. Yum! Brands’s quarterly revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 21st will be paid a $0.71 dividend. This is an increase from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 21st. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.98%. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is presently 51.34%.

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.