Swiss National Bank Lowers Stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Swiss National Bank trimmed its holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 5.0% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 801,300 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 41,800 shares during the quarter. Swiss National Bank’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $121,798,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in YUM. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 695,059 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $105,649,000 after purchasing an additional 8,888 shares in the last quarter. Amundi boosted its position in Yum! Brands by 115.8% during the second quarter. Amundi now owns 1,311,849 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $197,013,000 after purchasing an additional 703,891 shares in the last quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama grew its holdings in Yum! Brands by 19.7% in the third quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 347,395 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $52,804,000 after purchasing an additional 57,112 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in Yum! Brands by 34.3% in the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,789,728 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $413,382,000 after purchasing an additional 713,167 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Pension Service increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.5% in the third quarter. National Pension Service now owns 430,416 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $65,423,000 after buying an additional 10,632 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on YUM. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $165.00 to $176.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $180.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, February 5th. 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. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Yum! Brands from $170.00 to $171.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Gordon Haskett raised Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 8th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $174.50.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 242 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.02, for a total value of $40,176.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 65,297 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,840,607.94. This represents a 0.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, 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 value of $1,937,280.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 14,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,365,096. The trade was a 45.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 quarter. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Yum! Brands stock opened at $159.28 on Wednesday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $137.33 and a 12-month high of $169.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $44.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.70, a P/E/G ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.64. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $158.25 and its two-hundred day moving average is $151.67.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.76 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $2.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.45 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 18.98% and a negative return on equity of 22.42%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.61 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 20th were issued a $0.75 dividend. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 20th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is presently 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.