Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT Sells 260 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT lowered its stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 3.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,371 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 260 shares during the period. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $1,123,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Handelsbanken Fonder AB increased its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 13.6% during the 4th quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 72,830 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $9,771,000 after purchasing an additional 8,704 shares during the last quarter. Summit Place Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,823,000. Global Retirement Partners LLC grew its stake in Yum! Brands by 8.2% in the 4th quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 1,391 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $187,000 after buying an additional 106 shares in the last quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund grew its stake in Yum! Brands by 89.4% in the 4th quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund now owns 15,770 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,116,000 after buying an additional 7,445 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its stake in Yum! Brands by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 73,815 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $9,893,000 after buying an additional 1,718 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

NYSE YUM opened at $148.51 on Friday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $122.13 and a 52-week high of $151.29. The company has a market capitalization of $41.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.45, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a fifty day moving average of $134.35 and a 200-day moving average of $135.03.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.71 per share. This is an increase from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.91%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 21st. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is currently 51.34%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on YUM. TD Securities lifted their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $151.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $156.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Redburn Atlantic lowered shares of Yum! Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein lowered 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. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $147.37.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.06, for a total value of $522,883.90. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,474,708.10. The trade was a 2.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.