Pictet Asset Management Holding SA Decreases Stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Pictet Asset Management Holding SA lessened its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 7.2% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 155,347 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 12,077 shares during the quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $24,153,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position in Yum! Brands by 8.0% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,861 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,055,000 after acquiring an additional 583 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 124.5% in the 2nd quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 151,316 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $22,422,000 after purchasing an additional 83,916 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 10.0% in the 2nd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 117,824 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $17,447,000 after purchasing an additional 10,755 shares in the last quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina boosted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.0% during the 2nd quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 130,205 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $19,294,000 after purchasing an additional 1,256 shares during the last quarter. Finally, HUB Investment Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 59.1% during the 2nd quarter. HUB Investment Partners LLC now owns 2,319 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $344,000 after purchasing an additional 861 shares during the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 270 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $148.14, for a total transaction of $39,997.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 64,282 shares in the company, valued at $9,522,735.48. This represents a 0.42% 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. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Sean Tresvant sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.68, for a total transaction of $464,040.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 3,140 shares in the company, valued at $485,695.20. This represents a 48.86% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 12,423 shares of company stock worth $1,953,721 over the last 90 days. 0.14% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently commented on YUM shares. Citigroup increased their price target on Yum! Brands from $174.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $165.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $177.00 target price on Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $168.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $176.12.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 1.0%

Shares of NYSE YUM opened at $161.46 on Thursday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $153.68 and its two-hundred day moving average is $156.29. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $137.33 and a 52-week high of $169.39. The firm has a market cap of $44.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.04, a PEG ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 0.56.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The restaurant operator reported $1.50 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.39 by $0.11. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 23.51% and a net margin of 20.48%.The business had revenue of $2.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.04 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.30 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 6.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, June 16th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the restaurant operator to buy up to 9.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 12th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 27th 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 was Wednesday, May 27th. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.39%.

About Yum! Brands

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.