Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Shares Purchased by Parallel Advisors LLC

Parallel Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 3.1% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 5,011 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 150 shares during the period. Parallel Advisors LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $672,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands during the third quarter worth $29,000. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter worth $33,000. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. increased its stake in Yum! Brands by 52.1% during the fourth quarter. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. now owns 295 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $40,000 after acquiring an additional 101 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands during the third quarter worth $42,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Trading Up 0.2 %

NYSE:YUM opened at $157.85 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $44.06 billion, a PE ratio of 30.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $143.32 and a 200 day moving average price of $137.67. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $122.13 and a 12-month high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 21st were issued a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.80%. This is an increase from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 21st. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is 54.41%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Yum! Brands news, VP David Eric Russell sold 5,000 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.66, for a total transaction of $793,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 11,960 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,897,573.60. The trade was a 29.48 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 5,293 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.24, for a total value of $816,392.32. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 157,893 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,353,416.32. This trade represents a 3.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 50,132 shares of company stock valued at $7,952,685 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on YUM shares. Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $141.00 target price (down previously from $153.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Friday, January 10th. TD Securities raised their target price on Yum! Brands from $151.00 to $164.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $176.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price target on Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Fifteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $151.79.

About Yum! Brands

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.