Tounjian Advisory Partners LLC Sells 3,746 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Tounjian Advisory Partners LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 21.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 13,842 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 3,746 shares during the period. Tounjian Advisory Partners LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $2,104,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Salomon & Ludwin LLC grew its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 679.2% in the 3rd quarter. Salomon & Ludwin LLC now owns 187 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 163 shares during the period. Westside Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Yum! Brands by 81.7% during the third quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 198 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 89 shares during the last quarter. CNB Bank raised its stake in Yum! Brands by 833.3% in the third quarter. CNB Bank now owns 224 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the period. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the second quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Finally, Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $40,000. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Yum! Brands stock opened at $168.01 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $157.38 and a two-hundred day moving average of $151.02. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $137.33 and a one year high of $169.39. The company has a market cap of $46.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.66.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.76 by ($0.03). Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 22.42% and a net margin of 18.98%.The company had revenue of $2.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.45 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.61 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 20th will be given a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.8%. This is a positive change from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 20th. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is currently 54.05%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 1,612 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $164.63, for a total value of $265,383.56. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 242 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 transaction of $40,176.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 65,297 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,840,607.94. The trade was a 0.37% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 14,414 shares of company stock valued at $2,332,265. 0.33% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on YUM. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $165.00 to $176.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. Barclays set a $185.00 price objective on Yum! Brands and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, December 29th. Gordon Haskett raised Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 8th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $179.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Wednesday, January 7th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $174.50.

Yum! Brands 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.