BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. Sells 4,939 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. lowered its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 1.3% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 365,647 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 4,939 shares during the quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $50,697,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in YUM. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 72.6% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 65,775 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $8,218,000 after acquiring an additional 27,674 shares in the last quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its position in Yum! Brands by 5.0% in the 3rd quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 3,846 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $481,000 after purchasing an additional 184 shares during the period. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV grew its position in Yum! Brands by 35.9% in the 4th quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 572 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $75,000 after purchasing an additional 151 shares during the period. Wedmont Private Capital grew its position in Yum! Brands by 42.5% in the 4th quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 3,404 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $438,000 after purchasing an additional 1,015 shares during the period. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB grew its position in Yum! Brands by 59.5% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 531,103 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $69,596,000 after purchasing an additional 198,069 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on YUM shares. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, June 13th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $150.00 price objective for the company. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $166.00 to $162.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $133.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $148.00 to $143.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Argus reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $145.31.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,073 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.14, for a total transaction of $969,991.22. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 168,879 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,160,066.06. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 6,961 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $131.02, for a total transaction of $912,030.22. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 162,381 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,275,158.62. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,073 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.14, for a total transaction of $969,991.22. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 168,879 shares in the company, valued at $23,160,066.06. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 33,398 shares of company stock worth $4,552,727 in the last 90 days. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 0.9 %

YUM stock traded down $1.14 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $128.19. The company had a trading volume of 208,419 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,980,143. The company has a market capitalization of $36.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.93, a P/E/G ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 1.07. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $115.53 and a 12-month high of $143.20. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $135.03 and a 200 day moving average price of $134.98.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.71 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 18.64% and a net margin of 22.92%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.06 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.63 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 7th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 28th were paid a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.09%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 24th. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is currently 47.52%.

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

Yum! Brands Company 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.