Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM Shares Sold by AlphaQuest LLC

AlphaQuest LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 38.3% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 6,320 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 3,918 shares during the period. AlphaQuest LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $936,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. HFM Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the 1st quarter worth about $25,000. Greykasell Wealth Strategies Inc. acquired a new position in Yum! Brands in the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. Manchester Capital Management LLC grew its position in Yum! Brands by 78.0% in the 1st quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 162 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 71 shares in the last quarter. Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group acquired a new position in Yum! Brands in the 2nd quarter valued at about $29,000. Finally, Wayfinding Financial LLC acquired a new position in Yum! Brands in the 1st quarter valued at about $32,000. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 2.0%

YUM stock opened at $143.37 on Monday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $147.35 and a 200 day moving average price of $146.30. The stock has a market cap of $39.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.28, a PEG ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.72. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $122.13 and a fifty-two week high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted 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 business had revenue of $1.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.94 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 21.01% and a net margin of 18.11%.Yum! Brands’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.35 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Weir Mirian M. Graddick sold 2,038 shares of the business’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 transaction of $296,121.40. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 1,233 shares in the company, valued at $179,154.90. The trade was a 62.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 12,220 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 15th. The stock was 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 29,078 shares of company stock worth $4,304,785 in the last three months. 0.33% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have weighed in on YUM shares. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Friday. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $164.00 target price on Yum! Brands in a research report on Tuesday, August 5th. Morgan Stanley set a $165.00 target price on Yum! Brands in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Yum! Brands from $162.00 to $160.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price objective on Yum! Brands from $164.00 to $163.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and thirteen have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $163.14.

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.