Lido Advisors LLC Sells 6,123 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Lido Advisors LLC cut its holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 28.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 15,228 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 6,123 shares during the quarter. Lido Advisors LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $2,368,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC increased its position in Yum! Brands by 8.0% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,861 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,055,000 after buying an additional 583 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 124.5% in the second quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 151,316 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $22,422,000 after buying an additional 83,916 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 10.0% in the second quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 117,824 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $17,447,000 after buying an additional 10,755 shares during the last quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.0% during the 2nd quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 130,205 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $19,294,000 after acquiring an additional 1,256 shares in the last quarter. Finally, HUB Investment Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 59.1% during the 2nd quarter. HUB Investment Partners LLC now owns 2,319 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $344,000 after acquiring an additional 861 shares during the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

NYSE YUM opened at $148.82 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $154.06 and a 200 day simple moving average of $156.76. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $137.33 and a twelve month high of $170.14. The stock has a market capitalization of $41.02 billion, a PE ratio of 24.00, a P/E/G ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 0.56.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The restaurant operator reported $1.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by $0.11. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 23.51% and a net margin of 20.48%.The firm had revenue of $2.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.04 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.30 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 6.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 12th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 27th were given a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 27th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.0%. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is 48.39%.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on YUM shares. Weiss Ratings downgraded Yum! Brands from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $177.00 target price on Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. BMO Capital Markets reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $168.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Yum! Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $180.00 to $185.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Tuesday, June 16th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $174.81.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In related news, CEO Aaron Powell sold 6,001 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.42, for a total transaction of $962,680.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 12,003 shares in the company, valued at $1,925,521.26. This represents a 33.33% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 1,837 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $152.00, for a total transaction of $279,224.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 3,497 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $531,544. This trade represents a 34.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 12,423 shares of company stock valued at $1,953,721 in the last three months. 0.14% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Yum! Brands 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.