Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC Has $386,000 Stock Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 14.8% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,916 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 376 shares during the period. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $386,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Calamos Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Yum! Brands by 5.0% in the 4th quarter. Calamos Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,692 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $221,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Yum! Brands by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,003 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,046,000 after buying an additional 81 shares during the last quarter. Choreo LLC raised its position in Yum! Brands by 1.6% during the first quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 5,312 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $737,000 after acquiring an additional 82 shares in the last quarter. Marcum Wealth LLC lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 3.4% in the second quarter. Marcum Wealth LLC now owns 2,477 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $328,000 after acquiring an additional 82 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 79.8% in the first quarter. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. now owns 187 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:YUM traded down $0.38 on Wednesday, hitting $136.47. 3,070,985 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,002,436. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $132.82 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $135.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $38.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.06, a PEG ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 1.07. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $115.53 and a one year high of $143.20.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The restaurant operator reported $1.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.33 by $0.02. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 18.64% and a net margin of 22.92%. The firm had revenue of $1.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.80 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.41 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback plan on Wednesday, May 15th that allows the company to repurchase $2.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the restaurant operator to purchase up to 5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually 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. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 28th were paid a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 24th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.96%. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is 47.52%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 6,961 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The shares were 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 approximately $21,275,158.62. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 6,961 shares of the business’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 approximately $21,275,158.62. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,061 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.43, for a total transaction of $963,332.23. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 165,630 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,596,900.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 27,089 shares of company stock valued at $3,693,505 over the last ninety days. 0.31% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

YUM has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $132.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, June 3rd. Evercore ISI lowered Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to an “inline” rating and cut their target price for the company from $160.00 to $145.00 in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on Yum! Brands from $135.00 to $130.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on Yum! Brands from $143.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Argus restated a “hold” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $145.00.

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.