Russell Investments Group Ltd. Purchases 62,317 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 14.8% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 482,469 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 62,317 shares during the quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $73,394,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. 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 worth $28,000 after buying an additional 163 shares in the last quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 81.7% in the third quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 198 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. CNB Bank grew its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 833.3% in the third quarter. CNB Bank now owns 224 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the second quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Finally, Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the third quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

YUM has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Barclays set a $185.00 price objective on Yum! Brands and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $165.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Gordon Haskett raised shares of Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 8th. Finally, Evercore restated an “outperform” rating and set a $190.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Thirteen equities 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.com, Yum! Brands presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $174.50.

Yum! Brands Trading Down 0.4%

Yum! Brands stock opened at $159.28 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $158.25 and its 200 day simple moving average is $151.67. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $137.33 and a 12 month high of $169.39. The company has a market cap of $44.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.70, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.64.

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

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 20th were paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 20th. This is a positive change from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 54.05%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Aaron Powell sold 12,000 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 14,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,365,096. This trade represents a 45.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 242 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.02, for a total value of $40,176.84. Following the completion of 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 14,138 shares of company stock valued at $2,289,990. 0.33% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Yum! Brands Company Profile

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.