ARS Wealth Advisors Group LLC Sells 299 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

ARS Wealth Advisors Group LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 15.1% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 1,682 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 299 shares during the quarter. ARS Wealth Advisors Group LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $220,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Deutsche Bank AG raised its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 121.8% during the third quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 1,819,809 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $227,367,000 after acquiring an additional 999,443 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in Yum! Brands by 79.0% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,208,137 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $150,945,000 after purchasing an additional 533,321 shares during the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 129.5% in the 3rd quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 769,543 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $96,147,000 after purchasing an additional 434,284 shares during the period. J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at $36,663,000. Finally, Sustainable Growth Advisers LP increased its position 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 buying an additional 210,238 shares during the period. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,078 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $138.37, for a total transaction of $979,382.86. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 172,128 shares in the company, valued at $23,817,351.36. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,078 shares of the business’s 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 172,128 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,817,351.36. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, VP David Eric Russell sold 9,919 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.63, for a total transaction of $1,285,799.97. Following the sale, 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. Insiders sold a total of 24,064 shares of company stock worth $3,228,698 in the last quarter. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 0.5 %

YUM stock traded down $0.73 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $134.34. 2,452,523 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,162,501. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $138.17 and its 200 day moving average price is $131.53. The stock has a market cap of $37.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.82, a P/E/G ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.07. 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 announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The restaurant operator reported $1.15 earnings per share (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 analysts’ expectations of $1.71 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 22.92% and a negative return on equity of 18.64%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.06 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.72 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have commented on YUM. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $144.00 to $148.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating and set a $160.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Wednesday. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Yum! Brands from $133.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company lowered Yum! Brands from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $150.00 to $135.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Finally, Argus reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $144.31.

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.