Platinum Investment Management Ltd. Buys Shares of 434,284 Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Platinum Investment Management Ltd. bought a new stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 434,284 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $64,352,000. Yum! Brands makes up about 4.3% of Platinum Investment Management Ltd.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 12th largest position.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of YUM. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its stake 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 during the period. NBC Securities Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 106,800.0% during the 1st quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 1,069 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $168,000 after purchasing an additional 1,068 shares during the period. Merit Financial Group LLC lifted its position in Yum! Brands by 13.0% during the first quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 12,006 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,889,000 after buying an additional 1,383 shares during the period. Capital Asset Advisory Services LLC purchased a new position in Yum! Brands during the first quarter worth about $206,000. Finally, Lakeshore Capital Group Inc. lifted its position in Yum! Brands by 2.1% during the first quarter. Lakeshore Capital Group Inc. now owns 3,614 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $569,000 after buying an additional 74 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,176 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $149.80, for a total transaction of $1,074,964.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 102,893 shares in the company, valued at $15,413,371.40. This trade represents a 6.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Weir Mirian M. Graddick sold 2,038 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $145.30, for a total transaction of $296,121.40. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 1,233 shares in the company, valued at approximately $179,154.90. The trade was a 62.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 36,195 shares of company stock valued at $5,348,137. Corporate insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

YUM has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. TD Cowen cut their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $158.00 to $156.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, August 5th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $164.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. Redburn Atlantic raised shares of Yum! Brands from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $145.00 to $177.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 10th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $155.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Finally, Evercore ISI cut their target price on Yum! Brands from $170.00 to $165.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and thirteen have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $161.23.

Yum! Brands Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of YUM stock opened at $153.09 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $146.86 and its 200-day simple moving average is $147.36. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $122.13 and a 52 week high of $163.30. The company has a market cap of $42.49 billion, a PE ratio of 30.20, a P/E/G ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.72.

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

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 12th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 2nd were 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 was Tuesday, September 2nd. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 56.02%.

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.