Advisors Asset Management Inc. Purchases 4,613 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Advisors Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 11.6% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 44,376 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 4,613 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $6,153,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Yum! Brands by 82.9% during the 1st quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,064 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,257,000 after acquiring an additional 4,107 shares during the period. EP Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 4.6% in the first quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 13,708 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,901,000 after purchasing an additional 602 shares in the last quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the 1st quarter valued at $1,244,000. EntryPoint Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 29.2% during the 1st quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC now owns 416 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $58,000 after buying an additional 94 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fayez Sarofim & Co boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 24.4% in the 1st quarter. Fayez Sarofim & Co now owns 8,681 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,204,000 after buying an additional 1,701 shares during the period. 82.37% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 6,961 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $131.02, for a total value of $912,030.22. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 162,381 shares in the company, valued at $21,275,158.62. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Scott Catlett sold 5,994 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction on Friday, May 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.50, for a total value of $848,151.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 34,889 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,936,793.50. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 6,961 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $131.02, for a total value of $912,030.22. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 162,381 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,275,158.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 33,398 shares of company stock valued at $4,552,727. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently commented on YUM shares. Evercore ISI downgraded Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to an “inline” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $160.00 to $145.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. BMO Capital Markets boosted 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, May 2nd. Argus reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $166.00 to $162.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $132.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, June 3rd. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $145.00.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 0.7 %

YUM stock traded up $0.92 during trading on Friday, hitting $128.05. The company had a trading volume of 1,874,400 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,996,463. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $115.53 and a 52-week high of $143.20. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $133.44 and a 200-day simple moving average of $134.85. The firm has a market capitalization of $36.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.70, a PEG ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 1.07.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The restaurant operator reported $1.15 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 negative return on equity of 18.64% and a net margin of 22.92%. The business’s revenue was down 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.06 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.65 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

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

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.