Simplicity Wealth LLC Buys 4,990 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Simplicity Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 339.2% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,461 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,990 shares during the quarter. Simplicity Wealth LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $1,005,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Brighton Jones LLC grew its position in Yum! Brands by 8.0% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,861 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,055,000 after purchasing an additional 583 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 124.5% in the 2nd 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 grew its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 10,755 shares during the period. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina increased its position in Yum! Brands by 1.0% during the second quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 130,205 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $19,294,000 after acquiring an additional 1,256 shares during the last quarter. Finally, HUB Investment Partners LLC increased its position in Yum! Brands by 59.1% during the second 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 currently owned by institutional investors.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

NYSE:YUM opened at $163.57 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $154.51 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $156.85. The firm has a market capitalization of $45.08 billion, a PE ratio of 26.38, a P/E/G ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.56. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $137.33 and a 52-week high of $170.14.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The restaurant operator reported $1.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $2.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.04 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 23.51% and a net margin of 20.48%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.30 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 6.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase program on Tuesday, June 16th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the restaurant operator to reacquire up to 9.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 27th were issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 27th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is currently 48.39%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Aaron Powell sold 6,001 shares of Yum! Brands 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 transaction, the chief executive officer owned 12,003 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,925,521.26. The trade was a 33.33% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 270 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $148.14, for a total transaction of $39,997.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 64,282 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,522,735.48. This represents a 0.42% decrease in their position. 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. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 12,423 shares of company stock valued at $1,953,721. Insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have issued reports on YUM shares. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Tuesday, June 16th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Yum! Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $180.00 to $185.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Yum! Brands from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $165.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $176.12.

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.