Blair William & Co. IL Sells 1,252 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Blair William & Co. IL reduced its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 3.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 35,302 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 1,252 shares during the quarter. Blair William & Co. IL’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $4,736,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in YUM. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the third quarter worth about $29,000. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. raised its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 52.1% in the fourth quarter. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. now owns 295 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 101 shares during the period. Finally, Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $42,000. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Oppenheimer increased their target price on Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. TD Securities upped their price target on Yum! Brands from $151.00 to $164.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. TD Cowen reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $140.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Argus raised shares of Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 31st. Fifteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $151.79.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

YUM stock opened at $155.72 on Monday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $147.14 and its 200 day moving average is $138.69. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $122.13 and a 52 week high of $163.30. The firm has a market cap of $43.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.83, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Investors of record on Friday, February 21st were paid a $0.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.82%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 54.41%.

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

In related news, insider Erika Burkhardt sold 597 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.07, for a total value of $94,964.79. Following the sale, the insider now owns 64 shares in the company, valued at $10,180.48. The trade was a 90.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 30,604 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.46, for a total transaction of $4,880,113.84. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 160,296 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 have sold a total of 50,132 shares of company stock worth $7,952,685 in the last 90 days. 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.