5,088 Shares in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Purchased by Caisse Des Depots ET Consignations

Caisse Des Depots ET Consignations purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 5,088 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $683,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter worth approximately $25,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new position in Yum! Brands during the 3rd quarter worth $29,000. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter worth $33,000. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 52.1% in the fourth quarter. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. now owns 295 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 101 shares during the period. Finally, Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the third quarter valued at about $42,000. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

YUM has been the subject of several analyst reports. TD Securities lifted their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $151.00 to $164.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Sanford C. Bernstein cut Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their price target for the company from $140.00 to $135.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. UBS Group raised their price objective on Yum! Brands from $156.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $176.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on Yum! Brands from $130.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Fifteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $151.79.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of YUM opened at $157.62 on Friday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $146.53 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $138.46. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $122.13 and a 12-month high of $163.30. The stock has a market cap of $43.99 billion, a PE ratio of 30.20, a PEG ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Investors of record on Friday, February 21st were given a dividend of $0.71 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 21st. This is an increase from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.80%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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 transaction, 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 5,293 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.24, for a total value of $816,392.32. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 157,893 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,353,416.32. The trade was a 3.24 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 50,132 shares of company stock valued at $7,952,685 in the last ninety days. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.