Burney Co. Sells 104 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Burney Co. decreased its holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 1.3% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 8,187 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 104 shares during the period. Burney Co.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $1,084,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in YUM. Wesbanco Bank Inc. lifted its position in Yum! Brands by 1.9% in the second quarter. Wesbanco Bank Inc. now owns 4,169 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $552,000 after purchasing an additional 78 shares during the last quarter. Choreo LLC raised its holdings in Yum! Brands by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 5,312 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $737,000 after buying an additional 82 shares during the last quarter. Marcum Wealth LLC boosted its position in Yum! Brands by 3.4% during the 2nd quarter. Marcum Wealth LLC now owns 2,477 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $328,000 after buying an additional 82 shares during the period. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. grew its holdings in Yum! Brands by 79.8% in the 1st quarter. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. now owns 187 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ascent Group LLC increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 4.3% in the first quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 2,045 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $284,000 after acquiring an additional 84 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on YUM. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $156.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $133.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Evercore ISI downgraded Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to an “inline” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $160.00 to $145.00 in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Barclays raised their price target on Yum! Brands from $144.00 to $148.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $155.00 to $153.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Yum! Brands has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $145.00.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of YUM stock traded up $0.37 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $135.62. The stock had a trading volume of 130,763 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,956,903. The stock has a market capitalization of $38.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.98, a PEG ratio of 2.07 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. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $132.44 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $135.85.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The restaurant operator reported $1.35 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.33 by $0.02. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 21.96% and a negative return on equity of 18.90%. The business had revenue of $1.76 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.80 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.41 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 27th will be issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 27th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.98%. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is currently 47.52%.

Yum! Brands declared that its board has authorized a share 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 buy up to 5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,061 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.43, for a total value of $963,332.23. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 165,630 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,596,900.90. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Yum! Brands news, Director Weir Mirian M. Graddick sold 1,309 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.40, for a total transaction of $179,856.60. Following the sale, the director now owns 1,233 shares in the company, valued at approximately $169,414.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,061 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.43, for a total transaction of $963,332.23. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 165,630 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,596,900.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 101,685 shares of company stock worth $13,910,094. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.