Procyon Advisors LLC Acquires 3,640 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Procyon Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 33.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 14,408 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 3,640 shares during the quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $2,240,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank bought a new position in Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter worth $706,799,000. Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 20.0% in 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 purchasing an additional 3,240,190 shares during the period. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. bought a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter valued at $272,794,000. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in Yum! Brands by 42.2% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,183,964 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $632,950,000 after purchasing an additional 1,240,777 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter worth $168,604,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Yum! Brands Stock Down 1.1%

Shares of YUM stock opened at $161.81 on Tuesday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $137.33 and a 12-month high of $170.14. The company has a market capitalization of $44.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.10, a P/E/G ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.56. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $154.55 and a 200 day moving average price of $156.90.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The restaurant operator reported $1.50 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.39 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $2.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.04 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 20.48% and a negative return on equity of 23.51%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.30 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 6.72 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 12th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 27th were given a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 27th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is 48.39%.

Yum! Brands declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock 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 reacquire up to 9.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 250 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.42, for a total value of $40,105.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 64,032 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,272,013.44. The trade was a 0.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 277 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.42, for a total value of $44,436.34. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 483 shares in the company, valued at $77,482.86. The trade was a 36.45% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last three months, insiders sold 12,423 shares of company stock worth $1,953,721. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Yum! Brands Company 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.