Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM Holdings Lifted by Kovack Advisors Inc.

Kovack Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 11.1% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,004 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 401 shares during the period. Kovack Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $593,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. HFM Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Yum! Brands during the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. Greykasell Wealth Strategies Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the first quarter valued at about $25,000. Manchester Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 78.0% during the first quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 162 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 71 shares in the last quarter. Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands in the second quarter worth about $29,000. Finally, Wayfinding Financial LLC bought a new position in Yum! Brands in the 1st quarter valued at about $32,000. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

YUM has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Guggenheim dropped their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $167.00 to $160.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 28th. Melius began coverage on Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, July 14th. They set a “buy” rating and a $200.00 target price on the stock. TD Cowen cut their target price on Yum! Brands from $158.00 to $156.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 5th. Morgan Stanley set a $165.00 price target on Yum! Brands in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on Yum! Brands from $164.00 to $163.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and thirteen have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $162.82.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 275 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $152.59, for a total transaction of $41,962.25. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,755 shares in the company, valued at $267,795.45. The trade was a 13.55% 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 7,176 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $149.80, for a total transaction of $1,074,964.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 102,893 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,413,371.40. This represents a 6.52% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 29,078 shares of company stock valued at $4,304,785 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

NYSE YUM opened at $138.01 on Friday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $122.13 and a 1 year high of $163.30. The business’s fifty day moving average is $146.43 and its two-hundred day moving average is $146.11. The stock has a market capitalization of $38.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.22, a P/E/G ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.72.

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

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 12th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 2nd were issued a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 2nd. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is presently 56.02%.

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.