Chancellor Financial Group WB LP Purchases New Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Chancellor Financial Group WB LP acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 3,912 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $525,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in YUM. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter worth approximately $25,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter valued at $33,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. raised its position in Yum! Brands by 436.5% in the 4th quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 279 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 227 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 52.1% during the 4th quarter. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. now owns 295 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 101 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 30,604 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.46, for a total value of $4,880,113.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 160,296 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,560,800.16. The trade was a 16.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, VP David Eric Russell sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.66, for a total transaction of $793,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 11,960 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,897,573.60. This trade represents a 29.48% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 62,334 shares of company stock worth $9,734,737. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

YUM has been the topic of several recent research reports. Cowen reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. TD Securities reissued a “hold” rating and set a $158.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. TD Cowen restated a “hold” rating and issued a $140.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Barclays boosted their target price on Yum! Brands from $163.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Guggenheim increased their target price on Yum! Brands from $155.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Sixteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $156.70.

Yum! Brands Trading Down 1.0%

Shares of YUM stock opened at $143.93 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $40.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.57, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.77. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $122.13 and a 12 month high of $163.30. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $148.41 and a two-hundred day moving average of $142.57.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 firm had revenue of $1.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.85 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.15 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 27th will be issued a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.97%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 27th. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is currently 56.57%.

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.