Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. Sells 5,236 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. lowered its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 11.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 39,895 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 5,236 shares during the period. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $5,912,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of YUM. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Yum! Brands during the 1st quarter worth $97,453,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.4% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 34,109,219 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $5,367,427,000 after acquiring an additional 483,918 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 2,288.1% in the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 502,267 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $74,426,000 after acquiring an additional 481,235 shares during the period. Platinum Investment Management Ltd. bought a new stake in Yum! Brands in the second quarter valued at approximately $64,352,000. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in Yum! Brands by 28.5% during 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 during the period. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 0.8%

Shares of YUM opened at $138.01 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $146.43 and its 200 day moving average is $146.11. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $122.13 and a 12-month high of $163.30. The stock has a market cap of $38.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.22, a P/E/G ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.72.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.44 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 business had revenue of $1.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.94 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.35 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 12th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 2nd were issued a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 2nd. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 56.02%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $156.00 to $158.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, October 20th. Guggenheim dropped their price objective on Yum! Brands from $167.00 to $160.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 28th. Barclays dropped their price target on Yum! Brands from $164.00 to $163.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein set a $164.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and thirteen have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $162.82.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 275 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $152.59, for a total transaction of $41,962.25. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,755 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $267,795.45. The trade was a 13.55% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,176 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $149.80, for a total value of $1,074,964.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 102,893 shares in the company, valued at $15,413,371.40. This represents a 6.52% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 29,078 shares of company stock worth $4,304,785 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

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.