Fox Run Management L.L.C. Buys New Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Fox Run Management L.L.C. purchased a new position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 8,206 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $1,101,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter valued at $13,181,000. Sei Investments Co. lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 24.7% in the fourth quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 183,121 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $24,567,000 after buying an additional 36,293 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 24.2% in the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 63,989 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $8,585,000 after buying an additional 12,472 shares in the last quarter. Plancorp LLC grew its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 20.9% during the fourth quarter. Plancorp LLC now owns 2,726 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $366,000 after buying an additional 472 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mizuho Securities USA LLC raised its position in Yum! Brands by 45.1% in the 4th quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 26,450 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $3,549,000 after buying an additional 8,218 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 30,604 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.46, for a total value of $4,880,113.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 160,296 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,560,800.16. This trade represents a 16.03 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 8,638 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.36, for a total value of $1,367,913.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 2,970 shares in the company, valued at $470,329.20. This represents a 74.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 50,132 shares of company stock valued at $7,952,685. Corporate insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

YUM has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $176.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded shares of Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $140.00 to $135.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $146.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $141.00 price objective (down previously from $153.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Fifteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $151.79.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Shares of YUM opened at $156.75 on Friday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $122.13 and a 52-week high of $163.30. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $143.99 and its 200 day simple moving average is $137.85. The stock has a market capitalization of $43.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st were issued a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.81%. This is an increase from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 54.41%.

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.