Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. Purchases 9,340 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 8.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 121,434 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 9,340 shares during the period. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $17,998,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.2% in the first quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 256,961 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $40,435,000 after buying an additional 3,172 shares during the last quarter. Dakota Wealth Management acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 1st quarter valued at about $1,172,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 11.5% in the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 498,597 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $78,459,000 after acquiring an additional 51,419 shares during the last quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 741.1% during the first quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC now owns 6,157 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $968,000 after purchasing an additional 5,425 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Signal Advisors Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the second quarter valued at approximately $304,000. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 275 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $152.59, for a total transaction of $41,962.25. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,755 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Weir Mirian M. Graddick sold 2,038 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $145.30, for a total value of $296,121.40. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 1,233 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $179,154.90. This trade represents a 62.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 30,357 shares of company stock valued at $4,499,653. 0.33% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Yum! Brands Trading Down 1.3%

NYSE:YUM opened at $147.42 on Friday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $122.13 and a 1-year high of $163.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $40.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.08, a PEG ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.73. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $146.45 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $146.19.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.58 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $1.98 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.96 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 21.01% and a net margin of 18.11%.Yum! Brands’s revenue was up 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.37 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 12th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 2nd were issued a $0.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 2nd. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 55.36%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on YUM. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price objective on Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Citigroup boosted their target price on Yum! Brands from $156.00 to $158.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, October 20th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on Yum! Brands from $156.00 to $162.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $155.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $166.29.

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.