Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Shares Sold by Avestar Capital LLC

Avestar Capital LLC lessened its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 21.8% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 1,567 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 436 shares during the period. Avestar Capital LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $219,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of YUM. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Yum! Brands by 9.4% during the first quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 3,846 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $533,000 after acquiring an additional 332 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC raised its stake in Yum! Brands by 20.4% during the first quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 12,355 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,711,000 after acquiring an additional 2,094 shares during the period. LRI Investments LLC acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands during the first quarter worth about $122,000. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands during the first quarter worth about $19,041,000. Finally, Atria Investments Inc raised its stake in Yum! Brands by 13.4% during the first quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 30,504 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $4,228,000 after acquiring an additional 3,608 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:YUM opened at $139.33 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $38.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.04, a PEG ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.10. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $123.70 and a 1-year high of $143.20. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $134.97 and a 200 day moving average price of $134.54.

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

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd will be given a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.92%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 50.09%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

YUM has been the topic of several research reports. Bank of America dropped their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $137.00 to $144.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. TD Cowen restated a “hold” rating and issued a $145.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $150.00 to $154.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Loop Capital decreased 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. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $145.94.

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,005 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.43, for a total value of $941,682.15. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 152,634 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,518,588.62. This represents a 4.39 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 21,069 shares of company stock worth $2,842,965. 0.31% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.