Loomis Sayles & Co. L P Sells 129,079 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Loomis Sayles & Co. L P decreased its stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 3.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,846,946 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 129,079 shares during the period. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $516,106,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 3rd quarter worth about $29,000. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter valued at about $33,000. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. grew its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 52.1% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $42,000. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 30,604 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.46, for a total transaction of $4,880,113.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 160,296 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,560,800.16. The trade was a 16.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, VP David Eric Russell sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s 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 approximately $1,897,573.60. The trade was a 29.48 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 50,132 shares of company stock worth $7,952,685. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $130.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Sanford C. Bernstein cut shares of Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $140.00 to $135.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Yum! Brands from $146.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Yum! Brands from $156.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Fifteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $151.79.

Yum! Brands Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of YUM stock opened at $158.55 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $44.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $122.13 and a 12-month high of $163.30. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $145.90 and its 200-day moving average price is $138.32.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st were issued a $0.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. 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%. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is 54.41%.

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.