Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM Position Raised by Empowered Funds LLC

Empowered Funds LLC lifted its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 56.2% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 60,169 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 21,637 shares during the quarter. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $9,355,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter valued at about $706,799,000. Capital International Investors lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 20.0% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 19,419,826 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,938,139,000 after purchasing an additional 3,240,190 shares during the last quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $272,794,000. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 42.2% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,183,964 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $632,950,000 after buying an additional 1,240,777 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter valued at $168,604,000. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

YUM has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating and issued a $180.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Tuesday, June 16th. Weiss Ratings cut Yum! Brands from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $174.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Friday, July 31st. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $165.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $174.31.

Insider Activity

In other Yum! Brands news, VP David Eric Russell sold 7,961 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $153.15, for a total value of $1,219,227.15. Following the transaction, the vice president owned 11,960 shares in the company, valued at $1,831,674. The trade was a 39.96% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 261 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $153.15, for a total value of $39,972.15. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 63,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,766,528.65. This trade represents a 0.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 18,549 shares of company stock valued at $2,890,168. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Yum! Brands stock opened at $148.21 on Friday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $137.33 and a twelve month high of $170.14. The firm has a market cap of $40.45 billion, a PE ratio of 18.64, a P/E/G ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 0.55. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $153.75 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $156.19.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.62 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.58 by $0.04. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 25.42% and a negative return on equity of 24.57%. The business had revenue of $2.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.18 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.44 EPS. Yum! Brands’s revenue was up 12.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 6.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Tuesday, June 16th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the restaurant operator to repurchase up to 9.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.