Franklin Resources Inc. Grows Stock Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 22.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 160,790 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 29,932 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $21,572,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC lifted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC now owns 2,664 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $357,000 after buying an additional 69 shares during the last quarter. OLD Point Trust & Financial Services N A lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. OLD Point Trust & Financial Services N A now owns 15,357 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,060,000 after buying an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Investment Partners LTD. lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Investment Partners LTD. now owns 3,231 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $433,000 after buying an additional 72 shares during the last quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 1,575 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $211,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares during the period. Finally, Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC now owns 2,165 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $290,000 after acquiring an additional 82 shares during the period. 82.37% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

YUM has been the topic of several research reports. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $146.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. Barclays boosted their price target on Yum! Brands from $162.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Yum! Brands from $138.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Citigroup reissued 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. Finally, TD Securities reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $164.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, March 31st. Sixteen research 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, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $151.70.

Yum! Brands Trading Down 8.6 %

Shares of NYSE YUM opened at $147.52 on Monday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $150.15 and its 200 day moving average price is $139.52. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $122.13 and a 52 week high of $163.30. The stock has a market cap of $41.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.26, a PEG ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.90.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st were given a $0.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. This is a positive change from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.93%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 54.41%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 30,604 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $159.46, for a total value of $4,880,113.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 160,296 shares in the company, valued at approximately $25,560,800.16. This represents a 16.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP David Eric Russell sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.66, for a total transaction of $793,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 11,960 shares in the company, valued at $1,897,573.60. This represents a 29.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 50,132 shares of company stock worth $7,952,685 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands 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.