Capital Investment Advisors LLC Purchases 248 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Capital Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 2.9% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 8,848 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 248 shares during the quarter. Capital Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $1,392,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter worth about $33,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. grew its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 436.5% during the fourth quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 279 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 227 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LGT Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter worth about $41,000. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 268 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $145.97, for a total value of $39,119.96. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,755 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $256,177.35. This trade represents a 13.25% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 5,139 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $146.70, for a total value of $753,891.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 157,893 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,162,903.10. This trade represents a 3.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 17,763 shares of company stock valued at $2,637,564. 0.33% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

YUM has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Yum! Brands from $130.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, May 5th. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on Yum! Brands from $176.00 to $174.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Guggenheim upped their target price on Yum! Brands from $155.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, TD Securities restated a “hold” rating and issued a $158.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Fifteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $157.30.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of YUM stock opened at $143.12 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $39.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.42, a PEG ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.74. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $146.01 and a 200-day simple moving average of $143.21. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $122.13 and a 1-year high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.30 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.29 by $0.01. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 20.33% and a net margin of 19.68%. The firm had revenue of $1.79 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.85 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.15 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 6th. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 27th were paid a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.98%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 27th. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 56.57%.

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.