Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. Grows Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 554,878 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 25,022 shares during the quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $84,341,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Yum! Brands by 2.0% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,242,558 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $5,356,869,000 after acquiring an additional 684,946 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Yum! Brands by 2.3% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,131,263 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,945,791,000 after acquiring an additional 297,641 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.7% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,216,042 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,217,826,000 after purchasing an additional 218,046 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the second quarter worth $602,551,000. Finally, Loomis Sayles & Co. L P grew its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.1% in the second quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 3,844,806 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $569,723,000 after purchasing an additional 40,757 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Aaron Powell sold 12,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $161.44, for a total value of $1,937,280.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 14,650 shares in the company, valued at $2,365,096. This represents a 45.03% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 242 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.02, for a total transaction of $40,176.84. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 65,297 shares in the company, valued at $10,840,607.94. This represents a 0.37% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 14,414 shares of company stock valued at $2,332,265 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 1.4%

Shares of YUM stock opened at $168.01 on Friday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $137.33 and a fifty-two week high of $169.39. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $157.38 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $151.02. The stock has a market cap of $46.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.66.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.73 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.76 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $2.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.45 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 18.98% and a negative return on equity of 22.42%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.61 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 20th. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is presently 54.05%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on YUM. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated a “positive” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $170.00 to $171.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $160.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, November 17th. Oppenheimer lowered shares of Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 6th. Finally, Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $180.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $174.50.

About Yum! Brands

Yum! Brands, Inc (NYSE: YUM) is a global quick-service restaurant company that develops, operates and franchises a portfolio of well-known restaurant brands. The company’s principal brands are KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, each focused on distinct product categories—KFC on fried chicken and related menu items, Pizza Hut on pizza and complementary offerings, and Taco Bell on Mexican-inspired quick-service food. Yum! is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky and was formed as Tricon Global Restaurants in 1997 when PepsiCo spun off its restaurant businesses, later adopting the Yum! Brands name.

The company’s operating model centers on brand development, system growth and franchising; a large portion of its restaurants are operated by independent franchisees, and Yum! generates revenue through franchise royalties and fees in addition to sales from company-operated locations.