Cibc World Market Inc. Buys Shares of 22,192 Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Cibc World Market Inc. bought a new stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 22,192 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $3,548,000.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp acquired a new position in Yum! Brands during the second quarter valued at approximately $3,262,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the 2nd quarter valued at $6,025,000. Solstein Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the 2nd quarter valued at $171,000. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the 2nd quarter worth $26,537,000. Finally, Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the 2nd quarter worth $1,258,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. Citigroup upped their price objective on Yum! Brands from $175.00 to $178.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Sunday, July 12th. Morgan Stanley raised Yum! Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $180.00 to $185.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Zacks Research cut shares of Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday. BMO Capital Markets restated a “market perform” rating and issued a $168.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised shares of Yum! Brands to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $174.65.

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

In related news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 268 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $153.15, for a total transaction of $41,044.20. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 483 shares in the company, valued at $73,971.45. This trade represents a 35.69% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Aaron Powell sold 6,001 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.42, for a total transaction of $962,680.42. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 12,003 shares in the company, valued at $1,925,521.26. The trade was a 33.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 19,043 shares of company stock valued at $2,978,180. Corporate insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Yum! Brands

Here are the key news stories impacting Yum! Brands this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Robert W. Baird upgraded YUM to “strong buy,” providing a bullish counterpoint to other recent rating changes. Analyst ratings and beef tariff article
• Positive Sentiment: A temporary 90-day waiver on beef import tariffs could reduce input costs for fast-food operators, potentially benefiting Yum!’s KFC and Taco Bell businesses, although the impact may be limited and temporary. Beef tariff waiver article
• Positive Sentiment: Pizza Hut launched a football-season marketing campaign with Pepsi and Josh Allen, alongside promotional meal deals, which could support near-term customer traffic and sales. Pizza Hut football campaign

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Shares of YUM opened at $154.74 on Thursday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $137.33 and a 52 week high of $170.14. The stock has a market capitalization of $42.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.46, a PEG ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 0.55. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $153.47 and a 200-day moving average of $155.91.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.62 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.58 by $0.04. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 24.57% and a net margin of 25.42%.The business had revenue of $2.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.18 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.44 EPS. Yum! Brands’s quarterly revenue was up 12.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 6.42 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, June 16th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the restaurant operator to reacquire up to 9.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.