Rehmann Capital Advisory Group Boosts Stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Rehmann Capital Advisory Group lifted its holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 2.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 7,392 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 203 shares during the period. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $992,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of YUM. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter worth $25,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter worth about $25,000. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter worth about $33,000. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. increased its holdings in Yum! Brands by 52.1% during the fourth quarter. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. now owns 295 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 101 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in Yum! Brands in the third quarter worth about $42,000. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on YUM shares. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $185.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday. Cowen reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Citigroup upped their price target on Yum! Brands from $148.00 to $151.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Barclays decreased their price objective on Yum! Brands from $165.00 to $163.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $176.00 to $174.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 7th. Sixteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $153.52.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, VP David Eric Russell sold 5,000 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.66, for a total value of $793,300.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 11,960 shares in the company, valued at $1,897,573.60. This trade represents a 29.48 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 5,139 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.70, for a total transaction of $753,891.30. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 157,893 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,162,903.10. The trade was a 3.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 55,271 shares of company stock worth $8,706,576 in the last quarter. 0.33% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 1.9 %

Shares of NYSE YUM opened at $150.49 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $151.92 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $140.78. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $122.13 and a twelve month high of $163.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $41.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.83, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.90.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.30 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.29 by $0.01. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 19.68% and a negative return on equity of 20.33%. The business had revenue of $1.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.85 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.15 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Investors of record on Friday, February 21st were issued a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.89%. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 21st. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 54.41%.

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.