Schmidt P J Investment Management Inc. Boosts Stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Schmidt P J Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 1.7% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 7,326 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 125 shares during the period. Schmidt P J Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $1,086,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 2.7% in the 2nd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 107,010 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $15,857,000 after buying an additional 2,791 shares in the last quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $935,000. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 686,171 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $101,677,000 after buying an additional 11,296 shares in the last quarter. R Squared Ltd purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $405,000. Finally, AlTi Global Inc. lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 5.9% in the 2nd quarter. AlTi Global Inc. now owns 2,495 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $370,000 after buying an additional 138 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 12,220 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $148.24, for a total transaction of $1,811,492.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,176 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $149.80, for a total value of $1,074,964.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 102,893 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,413,371.40. This represents a 6.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 29,078 shares of company stock valued at $4,304,785. Corporate insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

YUM has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and set a $167.00 price target (up previously from $165.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Morgan Stanley set a $165.00 price target on Yum! Brands in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. Royal Bank Of Canada initiated coverage on Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. They set a “sector perform” rating and a $165.00 price target on the stock. Melius initiated coverage on Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, July 14th. They set a “buy” rating and a $200.00 price target on the stock. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on Yum! Brands from $162.00 to $160.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and thirteen have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $163.14.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 2.0%

YUM stock opened at $143.37 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $39.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.28, a PEG ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.72. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $147.35 and a 200-day simple moving average of $146.30. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $122.13 and a 52 week high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.44 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $1.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.94 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 21.01% and a net margin of 18.11%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.35 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 12th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 2nd were issued a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 2nd. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 56.02%.

Yum! Brands Profile

Yum! Brands, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, develops, operates, and franchises quick service restaurants worldwide. The company operates through the KFC Division, the Taco Bell Division, the Pizza Hut Division, and the Habit Burger Grill Division segments. It also operates restaurants under the KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and The Habit Burger Grill brands, which specialize in chicken, pizza, made-to-order chargrilled burgers, sandwiches, Mexican-style food categories, and other food products.