Capital World Investors Sells 2,696,373 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Capital World Investors lessened its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 79.1% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 712,961 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 2,696,373 shares during the quarter. Capital World Investors’ holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $108,370,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Capital International Sarl raised its holdings in Yum! Brands by 4.7% in the 3rd quarter. Capital International Sarl now owns 80,347 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $12,213,000 after buying an additional 3,607 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Inc. CA grew its holdings in Yum! Brands by 10.0% during the 3rd quarter. Capital International Inc. CA now owns 364,556 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $55,413,000 after acquiring an additional 33,179 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its position in Yum! Brands by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 16,179,636 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,459,940,000 after acquiring an additional 487,069 shares during the period. Bank of Montreal Can increased its position in Yum! Brands by 29.5% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 381,619 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $58,006,000 after acquiring an additional 86,952 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 6.1% during the third quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 2,248,162 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $341,721,000 after acquiring an additional 129,966 shares during the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on YUM. Gordon Haskett upgraded shares of Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 8th. Citigroup raised their target price on Yum! Brands from $170.00 to $171.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Oppenheimer downgraded Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 6th. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $180.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $174.50.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Aaron Powell sold 12,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 14,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,365,096. The trade was a 45.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 284 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.02, for a total value of $47,149.68. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders sold 14,138 shares of company stock worth $2,289,990. 0.33% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Key Stories Impacting Yum! Brands

Here are the key news stories impacting Yum! Brands this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Pizza Hut rolled out “Hut Crust,” a marketing and menu push (new Hand‑Tossed recipe + $10 large three‑topping offer) aimed at driving traffic and mix improvement — a consumer-facing initiative that can help sales and franchisee cash flow. PIZZA HUT LAUNCHES HUT CRUST PLATFORM FOR CRUST LOVERS & SETS OUT TO HIRE FIRST-OF-ITS-KIND HUT CRUST CONNOISSEUR
• Positive Sentiment: Yum!’s reported Q4 strength (revenue and comp-sales beats, operating profit up, and ~4,500 net new restaurant openings across KFC/Taco Bell/Pizza Hut) reinforces its scalable, franchise‑led growth story and supports medium‑term earnings upside. Did Yum!’s Q4 Beat and 4,500 New Openings Just Shift Yum! Brands’ (YUM) Investment Narrative?
• Neutral Sentiment: Sector & earnings roundups put Yum! in context with peers — useful framing for investors but not an immediate catalyst. Q4 Earnings Roundup: Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) And The Rest Of The Traditional Fast Food Segment
• Neutral Sentiment: Franchisee-level activity in key markets (Collins Foods acquiring KFC outlets in Germany; Devyani consolidating subsidiaries in India) signals brand expansion via partners — positive for global footprint but has limited immediate impact on YUM’s corporate earnings. Collins Foods to acquire eight KFC outlets in Germany Devyani International to merge three subsidiaries with parent company
• Negative Sentiment: Coverage highlighting Yum!’s underperformance vs. the Dow and relative weakness over the past year is pressuring sentiment — analysts remain moderately upbeat, but valuation (P/E ~28) and comparisons to faster-growing peers leave limited room for error, contributing to today’s pullback. Is Yum! Brands Stock Underperforming the Dow? Is Yum! Brands Stock Underperforming the Dow? (Yahoo)

Yum! Brands Trading Down 1.7%

Shares of YUM opened at $156.56 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $43.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 0.64. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $158.35 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $151.71. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $137.33 and a 12 month high of $169.39.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.73 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.76 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $2.52 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 revenue was up 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.61 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

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

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.