Royal London Asset Management Ltd. Grows Stock Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Royal London Asset Management Ltd. grew its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 5.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 121,945 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,042 shares during the quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $16,360,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in YUM. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 10.5% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 13,000 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,817,000 after acquiring an additional 1,234 shares in the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC lifted its position in Yum! Brands by 153.1% during the third quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 4,016 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $561,000 after buying an additional 2,429 shares in the last quarter. Prospera Financial Services Inc lifted its position in Yum! Brands by 3.7% during the third quarter. Prospera Financial Services Inc now owns 7,112 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $994,000 after buying an additional 253 shares in the last quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC lifted its position in Yum! Brands by 9.1% during the third quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC now owns 3,167 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $442,000 after buying an additional 264 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Yum! Brands by 0.4% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,632,862 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $228,127,000 after buying an additional 6,537 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on YUM. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Yum! Brands from $130.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. TD Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $140.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $141.00 target price (down previously from $153.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Fifteen 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, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $151.79.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

YUM opened at $156.75 on Friday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $122.13 and a 12 month high of $163.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $43.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.03, a PEG ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $143.99 and a 200 day moving average price of $137.85.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Investors of record on Friday, February 21st were paid a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.81%. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is presently 54.41%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 8,638 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.36, for a total transaction of $1,367,913.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 2,970 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $470,329.20. The trade was a 74.41 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 30,604 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $159.46, for a total value of $4,880,113.84. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 160,296 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,560,800.16. The trade was a 16.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 50,132 shares of company stock valued at $7,952,685 in the last three months. 0.31% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.