Lansforsakringar Fondforvaltning AB publ Buys 6,262 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Lansforsakringar Fondforvaltning AB publ boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 7.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 91,490 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,262 shares during the period. Lansforsakringar Fondforvaltning AB publ’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $13,906,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of YUM. Salomon & Ludwin LLC lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 679.2% during the 3rd quarter. Salomon & Ludwin LLC now owns 187 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 163 shares in the last quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 81.7% during the third quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 198 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. CNB Bank increased its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 833.3% in the third quarter. CNB Bank now owns 224 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the 2nd quarter valued at $36,000. Finally, Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the 3rd quarter valued at $40,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Yum! Brands from $165.00 to $176.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $190.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Barclays set a $185.00 price target on Yum! Brands and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $165.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $177.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $174.00.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

NYSE YUM opened at $166.58 on Tuesday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $137.33 and a 1-year high of $166.98. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $156.34 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $150.46. The stock has a market capitalization of $46.25 billion, a PE ratio of 30.01, a P/E/G ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.66.

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

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Aaron Powell sold 12,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $161.44, for a total value of $1,937,280.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 14,650 shares in the company, valued at $2,365,096. The trade was a 45.03% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 1,612 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $164.63, for a total transaction of $265,383.56. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 13,888 shares of company stock valued at $2,244,938 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

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.