Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC Boosts Stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC lifted its holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 15.1% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,790 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 235 shares during the quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $265,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of YUM. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 8.0% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,861 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,055,000 after buying an additional 583 shares in the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 106,800.0% in the first quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 1,069 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $168,000 after buying an additional 1,068 shares in the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 13.0% in the first quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 12,006 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,889,000 after buying an additional 1,383 shares in the last quarter. E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the first quarter valued at approximately $2,039,000. Finally, Procyon Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 36.2% in the first quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC now owns 19,737 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $3,106,000 after buying an additional 5,242 shares in the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

YUM has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $155.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $167.00 price objective (up from $165.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, August 4th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Yum! Brands from $153.00 to $151.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Saturday, September 27th. Finally, Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on Yum! Brands from $170.00 to $165.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and thirteen have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $161.32.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 12,220 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $148.24, for a total value of $1,811,492.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 275 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $152.59, for a total value of $41,962.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,755 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $267,795.45. The trade was a 13.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 36,195 shares of company stock valued at $5,348,137. 0.33% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 0.5%

NYSE YUM opened at $150.61 on Friday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $122.13 and a fifty-two week high of $163.30. The stock has a market cap of $41.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 0.72. The business has a fifty day moving average of $147.05 and a 200-day moving average of $147.28.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.44 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by ($0.02). Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 21.01% and a net margin of 18.11%.The company had revenue of $1.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.94 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.35 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 12th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 2nd were issued a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 2nd. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is 56.02%.

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.