Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM Shares Sold by Legal & General Group Plc

Legal & General Group Plc lowered its stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 5.5% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 2,118,196 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 123,007 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc owned approximately 0.76% of Yum! Brands worth $313,874,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Yum! Brands during the first quarter worth $97,453,000. Magellan Asset Management Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 35.9% in the 2nd quarter. Magellan Asset Management Ltd now owns 2,306,932 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $341,841,000 after buying an additional 609,223 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.4% in 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 buying an additional 483,918 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 2,288.1% during the 2nd 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Platinum Investment Management Ltd. purchased a new position in Yum! Brands during the 2nd quarter valued at about $64,352,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In other news, CEO Aaron Powell sold 2,790 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.48, for a total transaction of $419,839.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 26,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,010,292. The trade was a 9.48% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Erika Burkhardt sold 1,269 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $149.37, for a total transaction of $189,550.53. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 64 shares in the company, valued at $9,559.68. This trade represents a 95.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 37,870 shares of company stock valued at $5,657,495 over the last three months. 0.33% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

YUM has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Morgan Stanley set a $165.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $155.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $177.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $150.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Yum! Brands presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $167.38.

Yum! Brands Trading Up 2.5%

Shares of YUM stock opened at $152.99 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $42.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.17, a PEG ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.73. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $147.10 and a 200 day moving average price of $146.35. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $122.13 and a 12 month high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $1.98 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.96 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 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.37 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 12th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 2nd will be issued a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 2nd. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is 55.36%.

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.