Cetera Investment Advisers Purchases 12,033 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 16.1% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 86,617 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 12,033 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers’ holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $13,467,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. GSG Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 5.4% during the first quarter. GSG Advisors LLC now owns 1,511 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $235,000 after acquiring an additional 77 shares during the last quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. grew its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 8.7% in the first quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. now owns 21,749 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $3,382,000 after purchasing an additional 1,744 shares during the last quarter. CI Investments Inc. grew its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 12.8% in the first quarter. CI Investments Inc. now owns 2,927 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $455,000 after purchasing an additional 332 shares during the last quarter. Danica Pension Livsforsikringsaktieselskab acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands in the first quarter valued at $5,335,000. Finally, ABN Amro Investment Solutions increased its holdings in Yum! Brands by 3.4% in the first quarter. ABN Amro Investment Solutions now owns 13,522 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,102,000 after purchasing an additional 440 shares during the period. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

YUM has been the topic of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley raised Yum! Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $180.00 to $185.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $177.00 price target on Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Yum! Brands from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $180.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Tuesday, June 16th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $174.81.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 1,837 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $152.00, for a total transaction of $279,224.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 3,497 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $531,544. This trade represents a 34.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed 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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 3,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $485,695.20. The trade was a 48.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 12,423 shares of company stock worth $1,953,721 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 1.3%

Shares of NYSE YUM opened at $152.20 on Thursday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $137.33 and a twelve month high of $170.14. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $153.93 and a 200 day simple moving average of $156.73. The company has a market capitalization of $41.95 billion, a PE ratio of 24.55, a P/E/G ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 0.56.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The restaurant operator reported $1.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.30 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 6.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

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

Yum! Brands announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, June 16th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in 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 often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.