Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Shares Sold by Private Trust Co. NA

Private Trust Co. NA cut its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 30.4% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 3,269 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 1,428 shares during the period. Private Trust Co. NA’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $439,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Yum! Brands by 1.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,441,170 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,038,775,000 after acquiring an additional 111,147 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,355,367 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $315,996,000 after buying an additional 94,026 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 0.4% in 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 buying an additional 6,537 shares in the last quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 3.8% in the third quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,428,040 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $199,511,000 after buying an additional 51,690 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank grew its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 0.3% in the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 835,800 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $116,770,000 after buying an additional 2,800 shares in the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on YUM shares. Redburn Atlantic lowered Yum! Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. TD Securities increased their target price on Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $151.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Oppenheimer increased their target price on Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Loop Capital reduced their price target on Yum! Brands from $143.00 to $140.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $141.00 price target (down previously from $153.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Friday, January 10th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $148.32.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.06, for a total transaction of $522,883.90. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 149,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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 available at the SEC website. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 1.8 %

NYSE:YUM opened at $156.43 on Monday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $136.39 and its two-hundred day moving average is $135.59. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $122.13 and a 52 week high of $156.56. The company has a market cap of $43.66 billion, a PE ratio of 29.97, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.10.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.82%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 21st. This is an increase from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 54.41%.

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.