Pointe Capital Management LLC Buys Shares of 1,562 Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Pointe Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 1,562 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $204,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Legacy Financial Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 7.4% during the 4th quarter. Legacy Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 3,075 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $402,000 after buying an additional 212 shares during the period. Sapient Capital LLC acquired a new position in Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $352,000. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Yum! Brands by 68.1% in the fourth quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,957 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $648,000 after purchasing an additional 2,009 shares in the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC increased its stake in Yum! Brands by 9.4% in the fourth quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 7,887 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,030,000 after purchasing an additional 677 shares in the last quarter. Finally, 9258 Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter worth $205,000. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

YUM has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. 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 report on Thursday, March 7th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Yum! Brands from $133.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday. Barclays raised their price target on Yum! Brands from $144.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Yum! Brands from $134.00 to $132.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of Yum! Brands from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $150.00 to $135.00 in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $144.31.

Insider Activity

In other Yum! Brands news, VP David Eric Russell sold 9,919 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.63, for a total value of $1,285,799.97. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 18,661 shares in the company, valued at $2,419,025.43. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,067 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.34, for a total transaction of $963,514.78. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 175,377 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,910,900.18. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, VP David Eric Russell sold 9,919 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.63, for a total value of $1,285,799.97. Following the sale, the vice president now directly 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. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 24,064 shares of company stock valued at $3,228,698. 0.31% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Yum! Brands Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of Yum! Brands stock traded down $0.73 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $134.34. 2,452,523 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,162,501. The stock has a market cap of $37.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.82, a P/E/G ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a 50 day moving average of $138.17 and a two-hundred day moving average of $131.53. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $115.53 and a fifty-two week high of $143.20.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The restaurant operator reported $1.15 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.20 by ($0.05). The company had revenue of $1.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.71 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 22.92% and a negative return on equity of 18.64%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.06 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.