First Manhattan CO. LLC. Cuts Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

First Manhattan CO. LLC. lessened its holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 0.1% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 58,190 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 75 shares during the quarter. First Manhattan CO. LLC.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $9,157,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of YUM. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 14,795.6% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 769,805 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $121,137,000 after purchasing an additional 764,637 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the 1st quarter valued at about $97,453,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 34,109,219 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $5,367,427,000 after purchasing an additional 483,918 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 28.5% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,940,044 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $305,286,000 after purchasing an additional 430,511 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter worth about $43,944,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Weir Mirian M. Graddick sold 2,038 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $145.30, for a total value of $296,121.40. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 1,233 shares in the company, valued at approximately $179,154.90. This represents a 62.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 272 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $148.28, for a total value of $40,332.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,755 shares in the company, valued at $260,231.40. This represents a 13.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 29,284 shares of company stock valued at $4,310,663. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on YUM shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Yum! Brands from $162.00 to $160.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on Yum! Brands from $158.00 to $156.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, August 5th. Melius started coverage on Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, July 14th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $200.00 price objective on the stock. Redburn Atlantic upgraded Yum! Brands from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $145.00 to $177.00 in a report on Tuesday, June 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $155.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and thirteen have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $161.23.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of Yum! Brands stock opened at $146.89 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $40.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.97, a P/E/G ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 0.73. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $146.92 and its 200-day simple moving average is $148.17. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $122.13 and a 1-year high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.44 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.46 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $1.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.94 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 21.01% and a net margin of 18.11%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.35 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 12th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 2nd will be issued a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 2nd. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is currently 56.02%.

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.