Retirement Guys Formula LLC Purchases 596 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Retirement Guys Formula LLC grew its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 11.2% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 5,937 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 596 shares during the quarter. Retirement Guys Formula LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $796,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of YUM. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 408.2% during the third quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 747 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $104,000 after buying an additional 600 shares during the period. Procyon Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 3.8% during the third quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC now owns 14,537 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,031,000 after buying an additional 536 shares during the period. Stablepoint Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 4.0% during the third quarter. Stablepoint Partners LLC now owns 4,338 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $606,000 after buying an additional 165 shares during the period. Occidental Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.5% during the third quarter. Occidental Asset Management LLC now owns 3,880 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $542,000 after buying an additional 96 shares during the period. Finally, Swedbank AB increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 0.5% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 153,431 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $21,436,000 after buying an additional 736 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on YUM shares. Sanford C. Bernstein cut shares of Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $140.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $141.00 price objective (down previously from $153.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Loop Capital cut their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $143.00 to $140.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $147.37.

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at $20,474,708.10. This represents a 2.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.31% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of Yum! Brands stock opened at $146.62 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $40.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.10. The company’s 50 day moving average is $132.55 and its 200 day moving average is $134.08. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $122.13 and a twelve month high of $148.20.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Investors of record on Friday, February 21st will be given a dividend of $0.71 per share. This is an increase from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 21st. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.94%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is 51.34%.

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.