Natixis Advisors LLC Decreases Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Natixis Advisors LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 403,149 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 8,081 shares during the quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $61,279,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in YUM. Salomon & Ludwin LLC grew its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 679.2% during the third quarter. Salomon & Ludwin LLC now owns 187 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 163 shares during the last quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 81.7% in the 3rd quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 198 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. CNB Bank grew its position in Yum! Brands by 833.3% during the 3rd quarter. CNB Bank now owns 224 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. acquired a new position in Yum! Brands during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Finally, Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the third quarter worth $40,000. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In other news, CEO Aaron Powell sold 12,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $161.44, for a total transaction 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. This trade represents a 45.03% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 284 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.02, for a total value of $47,149.68. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 14,138 shares of company stock valued at $2,289,990 in the last ninety days. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

YUM has been the topic of several research reports. Morgan Stanley upped their target price 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 24th. Wells Fargo & Company restated a “positive” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Gordon Haskett raised shares of Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 8th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $174.50.

Yum! Brands Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of YUM stock opened at $159.83 on Tuesday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $137.33 and a twelve month high of $169.39. The stock has a market cap of $44.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.80, a P/E/G ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.64. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $158.11 and a 200 day moving average of $151.59.

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

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

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

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.