Impact Investors Inc Takes $1.01 Million Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Impact Investors Inc bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 7,501 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $1,006,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 140.3% in the fourth quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 437,625 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $58,712,000 after acquiring an additional 255,495 shares during the last quarter. FourThought Financial Partners LLC acquired a new position in Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,867,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,355,367 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $315,996,000 after acquiring an additional 94,026 shares during the period. Sentry Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 227.5% during the fourth quarter. Sentry Investment Management LLC now owns 1,084 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $145,000 after buying an additional 753 shares during the period. Finally, Crestwood Advisors Group LLC lifted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 47.0% in the fourth quarter. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC now owns 3,232 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $434,000 after purchasing an additional 1,033 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 2.7 %

YUM stock opened at $154.33 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $43.07 billion, a PE ratio of 29.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.11. The business has a 50 day moving average of $135.04 and a 200 day moving average of $135.23. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $122.13 and a twelve month high of $154.79.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Investors of record on Friday, February 21st will be given a dividend of $0.71 per share. This is an increase from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 21st. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.84%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is 54.41%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $140.00 to $135.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Argus upgraded Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, December 31st. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $162.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Redburn Atlantic downgraded Yum! Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, TD Securities increased their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $151.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $147.37.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.06, for a total value of $522,883.90. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,474,708.10. This represents a 2.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

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.