Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM Shares Purchased by Rakuten Investment Management Inc.

Rakuten Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 8.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 49,160 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,033 shares during the quarter. Rakuten Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $6,771,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Harrell Investment Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter. Harrell Investment Partners LLC now owns 4,235 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $677,000 after purchasing an additional 62 shares during the period. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 44.6% in the 2nd quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 227 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. Bridgewater Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Yum! Brands by 3.5% during the first quarter. Bridgewater Advisors Inc. now owns 2,108 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $311,000 after buying an additional 72 shares during the period. GSG Advisors LLC boosted its position in Yum! Brands by 5.4% during the 1st quarter. GSG Advisors LLC now owns 1,511 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $235,000 after purchasing an additional 77 shares during the period. Finally, Cidel Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 5.5% in the second quarter. Cidel Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,484 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $237,000 after buying an additional 77 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In other news, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 3,494 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction on Monday, August 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.00, for a total transaction of $552,052.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 3 shares in the company, valued at approximately $474. The trade was a 99.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 241 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.89, for a total value of $32,990.49. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 482 shares in the company, valued at approximately $65,980.98. This trade represents a 33.33% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 4,288 shares of company stock valued at $666,149 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

Key Yum! Brands News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Taco Bell sales are rebounding after the summer food-safety outbreak, with the recovery reportedly outpacing expectations. KFC International also delivered strong growth, helping offset softness in the U.S. Taco Bell recovery article
• Positive Sentiment: Guggenheim raised its price target to $180 and assigned a Buy rating, signaling potential upside in its view. Guggenheim rating information
• Neutral Sentiment: Q3 revenue was about $2.054 billion, while the earnings beat was helped by a gain from the Pizza Hut sale. Yum also reported growth excluding Pizza Hut, but results varied across its brands. Earnings and bull-case article
• Negative Sentiment: KFC’s U.S. system sales fell 6% in the quarter, suggesting its domestic turnaround remains difficult. Zacks Research also downgraded YUM from Hold to Strong Sell, adding a bearish counterpoint to the positive analyst target revisions. KFC U.S. sales article

Yum! Brands Trading Down 0.3%

NYSE:YUM opened at $165.89 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $45.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.53. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $134.26 and a twelve month high of $170.14. The company has a 50-day moving average of $146.71 and a 200-day moving average of $153.54.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 3rd. The restaurant operator reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.51 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $2.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.05 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 25.54% and a net margin of 39.14%. The firm’s revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.58 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 6.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 9th were given a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 9th. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is 24.08%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $170.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday. BTIG Research reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Wednesday. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $163.00 to $171.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Zacks Research lowered Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Argus cut Yum! Brands from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 24th. Fourteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $175.67.

About Yum! Brands

Yum! Brands, Inc is a global restaurant company that operates, franchises and licenses quick-service and fast-casual restaurants. Its principal brands are KFC, which specializes in fried and other chicken products; Taco Bell, which offers Mexican-inspired food; Pizza Hut, which sells pizzas and related menu items; and The Habit Burger Grill, a fast-casual burger restaurant chain.

The company’s business is primarily franchise-based, with restaurants operated by independent franchisees and licensees alongside company-operated locations.