Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. Grows Stock Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 12.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 94,810 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 10,363 shares during the quarter. Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $13,246,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 9.4% in the first quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 3,846 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $533,000 after buying an additional 332 shares in the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 20.4% during the 1st quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 12,355 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,711,000 after purchasing an additional 2,094 shares during the last quarter. LBP AM SA grew its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 101.9% in the first quarter. LBP AM SA now owns 6,860 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $951,000 after purchasing an additional 3,462 shares in the last quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.1% in the first quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 9,116 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,264,000 after purchasing an additional 98 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LRI Investments LLC purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 1st quarter valued at $122,000. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $150.00 to $154.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price objective on Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. TD Cowen restated a “hold” rating and set a $145.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Redburn Atlantic cut Yum! Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Loop Capital lowered their target price on Yum! Brands from $143.00 to $140.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $145.94.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,059 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.94, for a total transaction of $959,600.46. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,307,396.90. This trade represents a 4.51 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In the last quarter, insiders sold 21,069 shares of company stock worth $2,842,965. 0.31% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of Yum! Brands stock traded up $0.70 during trading on Thursday, reaching $139.33. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,614,155 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,057,298. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $123.70 and a 12-month high of $143.20. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $134.80 and a 200-day moving average price of $134.50. The company has a market capitalization of $38.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 1.10.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.41 by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $1.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.90 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 21.13% and a negative return on equity of 18.93%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.44 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.92%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 2nd. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is currently 50.09%.

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.