Sei Investments Co. Has $24.57 Million Stock Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Sei Investments Co. boosted its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 24.7% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 183,121 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 36,293 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $24,567,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of YUM. 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 bought a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at $29,000. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter valued at $33,000. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. boosted its position 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 purchasing an additional 101 shares during the period. Finally, Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the third quarter valued at about $42,000. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 1.8 %

NYSE:YUM opened at $158.55 on Thursday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $122.13 and a twelve month high of $163.30. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $145.90 and its 200 day simple moving average is $138.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $44.25 billion, a PE ratio of 30.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st were paid a $0.71 dividend. This is an increase from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 21st. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 54.41%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, 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 transaction of $816,392.32. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 157,893 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,353,416.32. This trade represents a 3.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP David Eric Russell sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.66, for a total value of $793,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 11,960 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,897,573.60. This represents a 29.48 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 50,132 shares of company stock worth $7,952,685 in the last three months. 0.31% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Barclays upped their target price on Yum! Brands from $162.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Yum! Brands from $138.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Argus raised Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 target price for the company in a report on Tuesday, December 31st. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $156.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Fifteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $151.79.

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.