Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM Shares Bought by Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund lifted its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 18.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 116,656 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 18,499 shares during the quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $17,286,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 256,961 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $40,435,000 after purchasing an additional 3,172 shares during the last quarter. Dakota Wealth Management acquired a new position in Yum! Brands in the first quarter worth about $1,172,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in Yum! Brands by 11.5% in the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 498,597 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $78,459,000 after buying an additional 51,419 shares during the last quarter. Signal Advisors Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands during the second quarter valued at approximately $304,000. Finally, Jump Financial LLC lifted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 458.8% during the 1st quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 30,780 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $4,844,000 after buying an additional 25,272 shares during the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 1,755 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $148.81, for a total transaction of $261,161.55. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Erika Burkhardt sold 1,269 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $149.37, for a total value of $189,550.53. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 64 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,559.68. This trade represents a 95.20% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 32,112 shares of company stock valued at $4,760,814. Corporate insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price target on Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $156.00 to $158.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, October 20th. Melius assumed coverage on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, July 14th. They set a “buy” rating and a $200.00 target price on the stock. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $163.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Yum! Brands from $162.00 to $160.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $166.29.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Yum! Brands stock opened at $148.84 on Monday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $122.13 and a 12-month high of $163.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $41.31 billion, a PE ratio of 29.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.73. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $146.49 and a 200-day simple moving average of $146.25.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 21.01% and a net margin of 18.11%.The business had revenue of $1.98 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.96 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.37 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

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

Yum! Brands Company 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.