David W. Gibbs Sells 7,063 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Stock

Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,063 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $145.57, for a total value of $1,028,160.91. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 157,893 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,984,484.01. This represents a 4.28% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

YUM stock opened at $147.00 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $149.93 and a 200 day moving average price of $141.82. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $122.13 and a fifty-two week high of $163.30. The firm has a market cap of $40.86 billion, a PE ratio of 28.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.77.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.30 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.29 by $0.01. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 19.68% and a negative return on equity of 20.33%. The business had revenue of $1.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.85 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.15 earnings per share. Yum! Brands’s quarterly revenue was up 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 27th will be paid a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.93%. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is currently 56.57%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $130.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $150.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Cowen reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $151.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Sixteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $156.70.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Yum! Brands

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of YUM. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter valued at $418,692,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in Yum! Brands by 14,795.6% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 769,805 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $121,137,000 after acquiring an additional 764,637 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the first quarter valued at $97,453,000. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 20.4% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,545,872 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $475,714,000 after acquiring an additional 601,361 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 34,109,219 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $5,367,427,000 after purchasing an additional 483,918 shares during the period. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Yum! Brands

Yum! Brands, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, develops, operates, and franchises quick service restaurants worldwide. The company operates through the KFC Division, the Taco Bell Division, the Pizza Hut Division, and the Habit Burger Grill Division segments. It also operates restaurants under the KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and The Habit Burger Grill brands, which specialize in chicken, pizza, made-to-order chargrilled burgers, sandwiches, Mexican-style food categories, and other food products.