Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH Purchases 15,937 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH raised its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 4.9% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 343,847 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 15,937 shares during the period. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $53,461,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Cambient Family Office LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 8.9% during the first quarter. Cambient Family Office LLC now owns 2,187 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $340,000 after buying an additional 178 shares in the last quarter. Econ Financial Services Corp grew its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 0.4% in the first quarter. Econ Financial Services Corp now owns 15,536 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,416,000 after acquiring an additional 63 shares in the last quarter. Verus Financial Partners Inc. bought a new position in Yum! Brands during the first quarter worth about $200,000. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 1st quarter worth about $2,192,000. Finally, Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC raised its stake in Yum! Brands by 2.3% in the 1st quarter. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC now owns 7,356 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,144,000 after purchasing an additional 168 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $177.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Yum! Brands from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Citigroup increased their price target on Yum! Brands from $174.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $165.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, April 20th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $176.12.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Sean Tresvant sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.68, for a total transaction of $464,040.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 3,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $485,695.20. The trade was a 48.86% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 270 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $148.14, for a total value of $39,997.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 64,282 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,522,735.48. This represents a 0.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 5,895 shares of company stock worth $906,499. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 3.5%

YUM stock opened at $156.36 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $153.77 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $155.88. The firm has a market cap of $43.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.22, a P/E/G ratio of 2.00 and a beta of 0.57. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $137.33 and a 12 month high of $169.39.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The restaurant operator reported $1.50 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $2.06 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.04 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 20.48% and a negative return on equity of 23.51%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.30 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 6.75 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 27th were issued a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 27th. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 48.39%.

Yum! Brands declared that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Tuesday, June 16th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the restaurant operator to repurchase up to 9.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

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.