Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Shares Purchased by RFG Advisory LLC

RFG Advisory LLC boosted its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 222.8% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 7,146 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,932 shares during the period. RFG Advisory LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $959,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 3.4% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 3,164,159 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $419,123,000 after purchasing an additional 104,328 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $7,645,000. Toronto Dominion Bank boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 15.5% during the 3rd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 127,446 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $17,805,000 after acquiring an additional 17,133 shares in the last quarter. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,262,000. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 689,631 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $96,348,000 after acquiring an additional 20,966 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 1.0 %

YUM stock opened at $128.31 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $35.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.98, a PEG ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 1.11. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $132.96 and a 200-day simple moving average of $133.56. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $122.13 and a 52 week high of $143.20.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.37 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.41 by ($0.04). Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 18.93% and a net margin of 21.13%. The business had revenue of $1.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.90 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.44 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd were given a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.09%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 50.09%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on YUM. Argus raised Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, December 31st. TD Cowen restated a “hold” rating and set a $145.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Loop Capital cut their price objective on Yum! Brands from $143.00 to $140.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price objective on Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Bank of America cut their price objective on Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $144.89.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.06, for a total value of $522,883.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,474,708.10. This represents a 2.49 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.31% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.