Bleakley Financial Group LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Bleakley Financial Group LLC increased its holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 2.9% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 13,779 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 383 shares during the period. Bleakley Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $1,910,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in YUM. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter valued at $331,831,000. Cantillon Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands during the first quarter valued at about $200,668,000. Capital World Investors grew its position in Yum! Brands by 4.9% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 14,650,728 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,914,257,000 after acquiring an additional 678,659 shares during the period. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. grew its position in Yum! Brands by 107.5% during the fourth quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 1,254,446 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $163,906,000 after acquiring an additional 649,922 shares during the period. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc grew its position in Yum! Brands by 55.8% during the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,592,259 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $208,045,000 after acquiring an additional 570,263 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have issued reports on YUM. TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating and set a $156.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, June 13th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price target on Yum! Brands from $148.00 to $143.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Yum! Brands from $133.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Yum! Brands from $155.00 to $153.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Yum! Brands from $132.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, June 3rd. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $145.31.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, insider Scott Catlett sold 5,994 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.50, for a total transaction of $848,151.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 34,889 shares in the company, valued at $4,936,793.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, insider Scott Catlett sold 5,994 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.50, for a total transaction of $848,151.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 34,889 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,936,793.50. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Paget Leonard Alves sold 6,309 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.19, for a total value of $859,222.71. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 33,398 shares of company stock worth $4,552,727 over the last quarter. 0.31% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

NYSE:YUM opened at $129.35 on Thursday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $115.53 and a one year high of $143.20. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $135.03 and its 200 day simple moving average is $134.98. The stock has a market cap of $36.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 1.07.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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). Yum! Brands had a net margin of 22.92% and a negative return on equity of 18.64%. The firm had revenue of $1.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.71 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.06 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.63 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 7th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 28th were paid a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.07%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 24th. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is currently 47.52%.

Yum! Brands declared that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, May 15th that authorizes the company to buyback $2.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the restaurant operator to purchase up to 5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

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.