Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. Boosts Stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 52.1% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 295 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 101 shares during the period. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $40,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 5,077.1% during the 3rd quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 182,130 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $25,445,000 after purchasing an additional 178,612 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 14,151.9% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 148,220 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $20,708,000 after buying an additional 147,180 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Yum! Brands by 1.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,441,170 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,038,775,000 after buying an additional 111,147 shares during the period. Markel Group Inc. increased its holdings in Yum! Brands by 80.9% in the third quarter. Markel Group Inc. now owns 156,502 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $21,865,000 after buying an additional 70,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 907.3% during the 4th quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 76,416 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $10,252,000 after acquiring an additional 68,830 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.06, for a total transaction of $522,883.90. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 149,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,474,708.10. The trade was a 2.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on YUM. TD Cowen restated a “hold” rating and issued a $145.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $141.00 target price (down previously from $153.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Friday, January 10th. Oppenheimer raised their price target on Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Argus upgraded shares of Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 31st. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded shares of Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $140.00 to $135.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $144.89.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of Yum! Brands stock opened at $131.35 on Thursday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $122.13 and a fifty-two week high of $143.20. The business’s fifty day moving average is $132.35 and its two-hundred day moving average is $133.67. The firm has a market cap of $36.66 billion, a PE ratio of 24.55, a P/E/G ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 1.11.

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

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd were given a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.04%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 50.09%.

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.