HM Payson & Co. Buys 628 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

HM Payson & Co. raised its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 51.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,853 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 628 shares during the quarter. HM Payson & Co.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $249,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Generali Investments CEE investicni spolecnost a.s. bought a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter valued at about $2,147,000. Banco Santander S.A. increased its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. Banco Santander S.A. now owns 22,279 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,989,000 after purchasing an additional 976 shares in the last quarter. Machina Capital S.A.S. bought a new position in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter worth approximately $892,000. West Family Investments Inc. bought a new position in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter worth approximately $263,000. Finally, Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $201,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $140.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $140.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $130.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $140.00 price objective (down previously from $158.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Fourteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $150.42.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Yum! Brands news, VP David Eric Russell sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.66, for a total value of $793,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 11,960 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,897,573.60. The trade was a 29.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.06, for a total value of $522,883.90. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,385 shares in the company, valued at $20,474,708.10. This trade represents a 2.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 48,654 shares of company stock valued at $7,659,176 over the last quarter. 0.31% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 2.1 %

Shares of YUM stock opened at $162.67 on Monday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $138.84 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $136.37. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $122.13 and a 12-month high of $163.30. The firm has a market cap of $45.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Investors of record on Friday, February 21st were given a $0.71 dividend. This is an increase from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.75%. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is presently 54.41%.

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.