First County Bank CT Trims Stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

First County Bank CT reduced its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 27.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,904 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 725 shares during the period. First County Bank CT’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $255,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of YUM. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $29,000. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. grew its stake in Yum! Brands by 957.1% in the third quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. now owns 222 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 201 shares during the period. Meeder Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in Yum! Brands by 43.6% in the second quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 270 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 82 shares during the period. Kimelman & Baird LLC bought a new position in Yum! Brands in the second quarter worth $37,000. Finally, Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL purchased a new position in Yum! Brands during the second quarter valued at $39,000. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on YUM. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Argus raised shares of Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 31st. Redburn Atlantic lowered shares of Yum! Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Loop Capital cut their price target on Yum! Brands from $143.00 to $140.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $146.78.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 1.2 %

Shares of Yum! Brands stock opened at $128.61 on Wednesday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $124.76 and a twelve month high of $143.20. The company’s 50 day moving average is $135.21 and its 200 day moving average is $133.99. The company has a market cap of $35.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 1.11.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.37 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.41 by ($0.04). Yum! Brands had a net margin of 21.13% and a negative return on equity of 18.93%. The firm had revenue of $1.83 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.90 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.44 earnings per share. Yum! Brands’s quarterly revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were given a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 2nd. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is currently 50.09%.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,059 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.94, for a total value of $959,600.46. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,385 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,307,396.90. This trade represents a 4.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders have sold 17,879 shares of company stock worth $2,424,167 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

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.