Forsta AP Fonden Purchases 1,500 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Forsta AP Fonden boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 2.8% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 54,700 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,500 shares during the quarter. Forsta AP Fonden’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $8,105,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 0.9% in the second quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 200,489 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $29,708,000 after buying an additional 1,707 shares during the last quarter. National Pension Service raised its holdings in Yum! Brands by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 419,784 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $62,204,000 after purchasing an additional 3,213 shares during the period. Cascade Financial Partners LLC lifted its position in Yum! Brands by 9.3% during the second quarter. Cascade Financial Partners LLC now owns 1,763 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $261,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares in the last quarter. Blackston Financial Advisory Group LLC increased its position in Yum! Brands by 5.2% in the second quarter. Blackston Financial Advisory Group LLC now owns 3,765 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $558,000 after buying an additional 185 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vise Technologies Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,078,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,176 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $149.80, for a total transaction of $1,074,964.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 102,893 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,413,371.40. This represents a 6.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 1,755 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $148.81, for a total value of $261,161.55. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 13,538 shares of company stock worth $2,029,594 over the last three months. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have weighed in on YUM shares. TD Cowen lifted their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $156.00 to $162.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. Morgan Stanley set a $165.00 price target on Yum! Brands in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $150.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $155.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $166.29.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

NYSE:YUM opened at $149.55 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $146.83 and its 200 day moving average is $146.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $41.52 billion, a PE ratio of 29.50, a PEG ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.73. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $122.13 and a fifty-two week high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $1.98 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.96 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 18.11% and a negative return on equity of 21.01%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.37 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 12th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 2nd were paid a $0.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 2nd. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 55.36%.

Yum! Brands Profile

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.