EP Wealth Advisors LLC Buys 430 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

EP Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 3.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 14,157 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 430 shares during the period. EP Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $1,899,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in Yum! Brands by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,355,367 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $315,996,000 after purchasing an additional 94,026 shares in the last quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 31.7% during the fourth quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,880,379 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $252,272,000 after acquiring an additional 452,339 shares in the last quarter. DJE Kapital AG acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter worth about $3,306,000. Forsta AP Fonden lifted its position in Yum! Brands by 5.3% in the 4th quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 110,500 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $14,825,000 after acquiring an additional 5,600 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,677,290 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $225,025,000 after purchasing an additional 44,428 shares during the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on YUM. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective 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. TD Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $140.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, February 6th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $156.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein lowered shares of Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $140.00 to $135.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Sixteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $156.70.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Erika Burkhardt sold 597 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 64 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,180.48. This trade represents a 90.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 30,604 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $159.46, for a total transaction of $4,880,113.84. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 160,296 shares in the company, valued at $25,560,800.16. This trade represents a 16.03 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 55,271 shares of company stock worth $8,706,576. 0.33% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE:YUM opened at $147.19 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $40.99 billion, a PE ratio of 28.20, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.77. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $151.04 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $141.48. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $122.13 and a twelve month high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.30 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.29 by $0.01. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 19.68% and a negative return on equity of 20.33%. The company had revenue of $1.79 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.85 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.15 EPS. Yum! Brands’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands 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.