Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM Stake Increased by Lombard Odier Asset Management Switzerland SA

Lombard Odier Asset Management Switzerland SA increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 21.9% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 35,110 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 6,300 shares during the quarter. Lombard Odier Asset Management Switzerland SA’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $5,459,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $706,799,000. Capital International Investors grew its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 20.0% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 19,419,826 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,938,139,000 after acquiring an additional 3,240,190 shares in the last quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. purchased a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter valued at $272,794,000. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 42.2% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,183,964 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $632,950,000 after acquiring an additional 1,240,777 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter worth $168,604,000. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have commented on the company. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Tuesday, June 16th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Yum! Brands from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. BMO Capital Markets reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $168.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $177.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Yum! Brands currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $174.81.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Yum! Brands news, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 1,837 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $152.00, for a total value of $279,224.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 3,497 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $531,544. The trade was a 34.44% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, 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 Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.68, for a total value of $464,040.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 3,140 shares in the company, valued at approximately $485,695.20. This represents a 48.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 12,423 shares of company stock valued at $1,953,721 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Trading Up 1.0%

Shares of Yum! Brands stock opened at $148.82 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $154.06 and a 200-day simple moving average of $156.71. The stock has a market capitalization of $41.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.00, a PEG ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 0.56. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $137.33 and a 1-year high of $170.14.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The restaurant operator reported $1.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $2.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.04 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 20.48% and a negative return on equity of 23.51%. Yum! Brands’s revenue was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.30 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 6.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 27th were given a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 27th. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 48.39%.

Yum! Brands declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Tuesday, June 16th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the restaurant operator to buy up to 9.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.