Jacobs & Co. CA Lowers Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Jacobs & Co. CA lowered its stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 0.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 54,338 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 165 shares during the period. Jacobs & Co. CA’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $7,099,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in YUM. Fortitude Family Office LLC acquired a new position in Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Rise Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 1,190.5% in the third quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 271 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 250 shares during the last quarter. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Clear Street Markets LLC raised its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 28,400.0% in the fourth quarter. Clear Street Markets LLC now owns 285 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 284 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legacy Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the third quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,067 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.34, for a total value of $963,514.78. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 175,377 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,910,900.18. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,067 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.34, for a total value of $963,514.78. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 175,377 shares in the company, valued at $23,910,900.18. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP David Eric Russell sold 9,919 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.63, for a total value of $1,285,799.97. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 18,661 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,419,025.43. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 20,742 shares of company stock worth $2,734,628 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on YUM shares. Oppenheimer upgraded shares of Yum! Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $154.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, January 5th. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $144.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $146.00 to $144.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $135.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $133.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. Nine equities research 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 currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $145.00.

Yum! Brands Trading Up 1.9 %

Shares of Yum! Brands stock opened at $137.32 on Thursday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $115.53 and a 1 year high of $143.24. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $134.30 and its 200-day simple moving average is $128.74. The company has a market cap of $38.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.57, a PEG ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.10.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The restaurant operator reported $1.26 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by ($0.13). Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 17.76% and a net margin of 22.57%. The business had revenue of $2.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.11 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.31 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 8th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 21st were given a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 20th. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.61. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is currently 47.94%.

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.