First National Bank of Omaha Acquires New Shares in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

First National Bank of Omaha acquired a new position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 5,648 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $900,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in YUM. Hsbc Holdings PLC lifted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 5.9% during the 4th quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 569,676 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $86,197,000 after buying an additional 31,836 shares during the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the 1st quarter worth about $1,589,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 5.4% during the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 584,953 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $88,030,000 after purchasing an additional 30,075 shares during the last quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd purchased a new position in Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,264,000. Finally, QRG Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in Yum! Brands by 19.8% during the first quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 103,807 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $16,140,000 after purchasing an additional 17,189 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on YUM shares. Argus lowered their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $185.00 to $180.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Tuesday, June 16th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on Yum! Brands from $170.00 to $160.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 4th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $174.65.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Aaron Powell sold 6,001 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.42, for a total transaction of $962,680.42. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 12,003 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,925,521.26. This represents a 33.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Sean Tresvant sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.68, for a total transaction of $464,040.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 3,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $485,695.20. This trade represents a 48.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 18,549 shares of company stock worth $2,890,168. Insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Shares of Yum! Brands stock opened at $146.15 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $39.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.38, a PEG ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 0.55. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $137.33 and a 1 year high of $170.14. The company’s fifty day moving average is $153.46 and its two-hundred day moving average is $156.02.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced 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. The firm had revenue of $2.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.18 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 24.57% and a net margin of 25.42%.Yum! Brands’s quarterly revenue was up 12.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.44 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 6.42 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, June 16th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the restaurant operator to purchase up to 9.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

About Yum! Brands

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.