Allianz SE Invests $1.68 Million in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Allianz SE bought a new stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund bought 12,585 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $1,680,000.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter worth about $25,000. Allstate Corp bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,132,000. DnB Asset Management AS grew its position in Yum! Brands by 4.9% in the fourth quarter. DnB Asset Management AS now owns 411,578 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $55,217,000 after acquiring an additional 19,148 shares in the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA increased its stake in Yum! Brands by 6.8% during the fourth quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 271,785 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $36,463,000 after acquiring an additional 17,222 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $418,692,000. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

YUM has been the topic of several analyst reports. Barclays boosted their target price on Yum! Brands from $162.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $130.00 to $148.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $141.00 target price (down previously from $153.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Friday, January 10th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $156.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $176.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Fifteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $151.79.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 30,604 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $159.46, for a total transaction of $4,880,113.84. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 160,296 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,560,800.16. This trade represents a 16.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 8,638 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.36, for a total transaction of $1,367,913.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 2,970 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $470,329.20. This represents a 74.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 50,132 shares of company stock worth $7,952,685. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

NYSE:YUM opened at $155.72 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $147.14 and a 200-day simple moving average of $138.65. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $122.13 and a one year high of $163.30. The firm has a market cap of $43.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.83, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

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

About Yum! Brands

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.