Key Financial Inc Boosts Stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Key Financial Inc increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 71.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 6,160 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,560 shares during the period. Key Financial Inc’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $805,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Yum! Brands by 1.5% in the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,947,399 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $784,673,000 after buying an additional 90,152 shares in the last quarter. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP increased its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 3.8% during the third quarter. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP now owns 5,766,650 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $720,485,000 after purchasing an additional 210,238 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 19.6% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 5,507,237 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $652,773,000 after purchasing an additional 901,181 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.6% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 4,365,517 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $517,792,000 after purchasing an additional 67,468 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 3.9% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,278,341 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $409,596,000 after purchasing an additional 124,080 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 related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,078 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $138.37, for a total value of $979,382.86. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 172,128 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,817,351.36. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,078 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $138.37, for a total value of $979,382.86. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 172,128 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,817,351.36. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP David Eric Russell sold 9,919 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.63, for a total transaction of $1,285,799.97. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 18,661 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,419,025.43. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 24,064 shares of company stock worth $3,228,698. Insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE YUM traded down $0.17 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $137.83. 1,483,649 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,939,037. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $115.53 and a twelve month high of $143.24. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $136.75 and its 200 day moving average price is $129.97. The company has a market capitalization of $38.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 1.10.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The restaurant operator reported $1.26 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.39 by ($0.13). The firm had revenue of $2.04 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.11 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 17.76% and a net margin of 22.57%. The firm’s revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.31 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 21st were given a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 20th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.94%. This is a positive change from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.61. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.94%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently issued reports on YUM. Guggenheim upped their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Oppenheimer raised shares of Yum! Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $154.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Friday, January 5th. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $135.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Argus reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $133.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $145.00.

About Yum! Brands

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.