Daymark Wealth Partners LLC Buys 112 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Daymark Wealth Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 3.1% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 3,705 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 112 shares during the period. Daymark Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $583,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in YUM. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter worth $418,692,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 14,795.6% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 769,805 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $121,137,000 after purchasing an additional 764,637 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 20.4% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,545,872 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $475,714,000 after purchasing an additional 601,361 shares during the last quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Yum! Brands by 31.7% in the fourth quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,880,379 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $252,272,000 after buying an additional 452,339 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter valued at about $59,289,000. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of YUM opened at $143.85 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $39.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.56, a PEG ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.74. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $145.66 and a 200 day moving average price of $143.21. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $122.13 and a 12 month high of $163.30.

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

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 27th were issued a $0.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 27th. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.97%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 56.57%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 268 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $145.97, for a total transaction of $39,119.96. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,755 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $256,177.35. This represents a 13.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 5,139 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.70, for a total value of $753,891.30. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 157,893 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,162,903.10. This represents a 3.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 17,763 shares of company stock worth $2,637,564 over the last 90 days. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on YUM shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, May 5th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. TD Securities reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $158.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Barclays increased their price target on Yum! Brands from $163.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their price target on Yum! Brands from $150.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Fourteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Yum! Brands currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $158.24.

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.