Shepherd Financial Partners LLC Takes Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Shepherd Financial Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 1,479 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $233,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of YUM. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. boosted its holdings in 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 buying an additional 227 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LGT Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter worth approximately $41,000. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on YUM shares. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Yum! Brands from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $167.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 4th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Yum! Brands from $150.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Yum! Brands from $130.00 to $148.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Yum! Brands from $163.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, TD Securities reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $158.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Fourteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $158.24.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In related news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 268 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,755 shares in the company, valued at approximately $256,177.35. This represents a 13.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,063 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $145.57, for a total transaction of $1,028,160.91. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 157,893 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,984,484.01. The trade was a 4.28% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 12,470 shares of company stock valued at $1,821,172 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 1.2%

YUM stock opened at $138.38 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $145.37 and a two-hundred day moving average of $143.31. The company has a market cap of $38.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.56, a PEG ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.74. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $122.13 and a 12-month high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.30 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.29 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $1.79 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.85 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 18.42% and a negative return on equity of 20.80%. Yum! Brands’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.15 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 27th were given a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.05%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 27th. Yum! Brands’s 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.