Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Holdings Lowered by Corebridge Financial Inc.

Corebridge Financial Inc. lowered its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 3.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 74,663 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 2,678 shares during the quarter. Corebridge Financial Inc.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $10,017,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 10.5% in the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 13,000 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,817,000 after acquiring an additional 1,234 shares in the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its stake in Yum! Brands by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 39,347 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $5,497,000 after purchasing an additional 625 shares during the period. Bank of Montreal Can lifted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 4.4% in the third quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 427,778 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $59,855,000 after purchasing an additional 18,092 shares in the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the third quarter worth $117,000. Finally, Townsquare Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 10.3% during the third quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 16,779 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,344,000 after buying an additional 1,568 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In other news, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 8,638 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.36, for a total transaction of $1,367,913.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 2,970 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $470,329.20. This represents a 74.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 30,604 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $159.46, for a total value of $4,880,113.84. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 160,296 shares in the company, valued at approximately $25,560,800.16. This trade represents a 16.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 50,132 shares of company stock worth $7,952,685 over the last three months. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on YUM. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $140.00 to $135.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $138.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective 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. 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. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $146.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. Fifteen 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.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $151.79.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:YUM opened at $158.55 on Thursday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $122.13 and a 52-week high of $163.30. The company has a market cap of $44.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.37, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $145.90 and its 200-day moving average is $138.32.

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 given a $0.71 dividend. 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 1.79%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is currently 54.41%.

Yum! Brands 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.