DnB Asset Management AS Has $65.97 Million Stock Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

DnB Asset Management AS raised its holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 1.9% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 419,217 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,639 shares during the period. DnB Asset Management AS owned approximately 0.15% of Yum! Brands worth $65,968,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 8.0% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,861 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,055,000 after purchasing an additional 583 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Yum! Brands by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 66,562 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $8,930,000 after purchasing an additional 1,369 shares during the period. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Yum! Brands by 26.9% in the 4th quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 3,228 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $433,000 after buying an additional 684 shares during the period. Benjamin Edwards Inc. raised its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 19.8% in the 4th quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 4,831 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $649,000 after buying an additional 799 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Balyasny Asset Management L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 103.6% during the 4th quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 3,797 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $509,000 after acquiring an additional 110,000 shares during the period. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

YUM stock opened at $144.52 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $40.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.50, a P/E/G ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 0.73. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $146.92 and its 200 day moving average is $148.13. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $122.13 and a 52 week high of $163.30.

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

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 12th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 2nd will be issued a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 2nd. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 56.02%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

YUM has been the subject of several research analyst reports. TD Cowen lowered their target price on Yum! Brands from $158.00 to $156.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $164.00 price target (down previously from $167.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Tuesday, August 5th. Evercore ISI dropped their price target on Yum! Brands from $170.00 to $165.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $164.00 target price on Yum! Brands in a research report on Tuesday, August 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Yum! Brands from $162.00 to $160.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and thirteen have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $161.23.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Weir Mirian M. Graddick sold 2,038 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $145.30, for a total transaction of $296,121.40. Following the completion of the sale, 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 document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 12,220 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $148.24, for a total value of $1,811,492.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 29,016 shares of company stock worth $4,271,543 over the last ninety days. 0.33% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.