Capital International Sarl Has $12.21 Million Stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Capital International Sarl boosted its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 4.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 80,347 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,607 shares during the period. Capital International Sarl’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $12,213,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Salomon & Ludwin LLC raised its holdings in Yum! Brands by 679.2% in the 3rd quarter. Salomon & Ludwin LLC now owns 187 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 163 shares during the last quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 81.7% in the 3rd quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 198 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 89 shares during the last quarter. CNB Bank increased its position in Yum! Brands by 833.3% during the 3rd quarter. CNB Bank now owns 224 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the period. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. acquired a new position in Yum! Brands in the second quarter valued at $36,000. Finally, Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the 3rd quarter valued at about $40,000. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently issued reports on YUM. Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 6th. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $180.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Piper Sandler reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Friday, December 5th. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $179.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Wednesday, January 7th. Finally, Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $180.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $174.50.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 0.1%

YUM opened at $159.83 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $44.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.80, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.64. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $158.11 and a 200-day moving average price of $151.59. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $137.33 and a twelve month high of $169.39.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.76 by ($0.03). Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 22.42% and a net margin of 18.98%.The company had revenue of $2.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.45 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.61 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 20th were issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 20th. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is presently 54.05%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 242 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.02, for a total value of $40,176.84. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 65,297 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,840,607.94. This trade represents a 0.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Aaron Powell sold 12,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $161.44, for a total value of $1,937,280.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 14,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,365,096. The trade was a 45.03% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 14,138 shares of company stock worth $2,289,990 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Profile

Yum! Brands, Inc (NYSE: YUM) is a global quick-service restaurant company that develops, operates and franchises a portfolio of well-known restaurant brands. The company’s principal brands are KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, each focused on distinct product categories—KFC on fried chicken and related menu items, Pizza Hut on pizza and complementary offerings, and Taco Bell on Mexican-inspired quick-service food. Yum! is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky and was formed as Tricon Global Restaurants in 1997 when PepsiCo spun off its restaurant businesses, later adopting the Yum! Brands name.

The company’s operating model centers on brand development, system growth and franchising; a large portion of its restaurants are operated by independent franchisees, and Yum! generates revenue through franchise royalties and fees in addition to sales from company-operated locations.