Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Shares Sold by Loomis Sayles & Co. L P

Loomis Sayles & Co. L P reduced its holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,976,025 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 127,023 shares during the period. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P owned approximately 1.42% of Yum! Brands worth $555,490,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of YUM. EntryPoint Capital LLC grew its holdings in Yum! Brands by 29.2% in 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. Ascent Group LLC raised its holdings in Yum! Brands by 4.3% in the 1st quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 2,045 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $284,000 after buying an additional 84 shares during the period. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Yum! Brands by 9.4% in the first quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 3,846 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $533,000 after buying an additional 332 shares during the last quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its position in Yum! Brands by 1.2% in the first quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 448,759 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $62,220,000 after buying an additional 5,258 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 20.4% during the first quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 12,355 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,711,000 after buying an additional 2,094 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have commented on YUM shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price target on Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Redburn Atlantic downgraded shares of Yum! Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Loop Capital decreased their price objective on Yum! Brands from $143.00 to $140.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Bank of America cut their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $150.00 to $154.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $145.94.

Yum! Brands Trading Up 0.8 %

NYSE:YUM opened at $135.27 on Monday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $123.70 and a 12-month high of $143.20. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $134.45 and its 200-day simple moving average is $134.47. The firm has a market cap of $37.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.28, a PEG ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 1.10.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.37 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.41 by ($0.04). Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 18.93% and a net margin of 21.13%. The firm had revenue of $1.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.90 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.44 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.98%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 2nd. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is 50.09%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,005 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.43, for a total value of $941,682.15. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 152,634 shares in the company, valued at $20,518,588.62. This represents a 4.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders sold 21,069 shares of company stock valued at $2,842,965 in the last three months. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.