Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Shares Bought by Korea Investment CORP

Korea Investment CORP lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 3.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 163,191 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 5,827 shares during the quarter. Korea Investment CORP owned approximately 0.06% of Yum! Brands worth $21,894,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter worth $25,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the third quarter worth about $29,000. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter worth about $33,000. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. increased its holdings in 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 buying an additional 101 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands during the third quarter valued at approximately $42,000. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

YUM has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Yum! Brands from $130.00 to $148.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Morgan Stanley raised 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 report on Thursday, March 13th. TD Securities boosted their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $151.00 to $164.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, Argus raised shares of Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, December 31st. Fifteen investment 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, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $151.79.

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

In related 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 $1,897,573.60. The trade was a 29.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 5,293 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.24, for a total transaction 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 $24,353,416.32. The trade was a 3.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 50,132 shares of company stock worth $7,952,685 over the last quarter. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 1.2 %

Shares of YUM opened at $155.72 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.46 billion, a PE ratio of 29.83, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $147.14 and a 200 day moving average price of $138.65. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $122.13 and a 52-week high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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 a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.82%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.