New York State Teachers Retirement System Increases Stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

New York State Teachers Retirement System grew its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 0.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 209,543 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 89 shares during the quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System owned approximately 0.08% of Yum! Brands worth $31,050,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of YUM. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Yum! Brands by 1.4% during 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 acquiring an additional 483,918 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.6% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 2,098,801 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $330,267,000 after purchasing an additional 53,326 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc grew its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.4% in the first quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,954,145 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $307,504,000 after purchasing an additional 27,355 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 28.5% in the first 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Yum! Brands by 1.4% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,700,298 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $267,559,000 after buying an additional 23,008 shares in the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $153.00 to $151.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Evercore ISI reduced their target price on shares of 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 shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Tuesday, August 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $162.00 to $160.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and fourteen have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $161.48.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,176 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owned 102,893 shares in the company, valued at $15,413,371.40. This represents a 6.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Weir Mirian M. Graddick sold 2,038 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the director directly owned 1,233 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $179,154.90. The trade was a 62.31% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 29,078 shares of company stock worth $4,304,785 over the last quarter. 0.33% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of YUM stock opened at $145.25 on Friday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $122.13 and a 1-year high of $163.30. The firm has a market cap of $40.31 billion, a PE ratio of 28.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a 50-day moving average of $147.14 and a two-hundred day moving average of $146.39.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued 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). The company had revenue of $1.93 billion during 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 business’s revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.35 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 12th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 2nd were paid a $0.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 2nd. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.0%. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is presently 56.02%.

Yum! Brands Company 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.