Capital Advisors Inc. OK Cuts Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Capital Advisors Inc. OK trimmed its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 6.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 19,418 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 1,244 shares during the period. Capital Advisors Inc. OK’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $2,605,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,441,170 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,038,775,000 after acquiring an additional 111,147 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,632,862 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $228,127,000 after acquiring an additional 6,537 shares during the period. Cantillon Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,428,040 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $199,511,000 after acquiring an additional 51,690 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank grew its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 835,800 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $116,770,000 after acquiring an additional 2,800 shares during the period. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 696,714 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $93,471,000 after acquiring an additional 7,083 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

YUM has been the topic of a number of research reports. Redburn Atlantic cut Yum! Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $141.00 target price (down previously from $153.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Friday, January 10th. Argus upgraded 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. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their target price on Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, TD Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $140.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $147.37.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,059 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $135.94, for a total transaction of $959,600.46. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,385 shares in the company, valued at $20,307,396.90. This trade represents a 4.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

NYSE:YUM opened at $146.62 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $132.55 and its two-hundred day moving average is $134.08. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $122.13 and a 12 month high of $148.20. The firm has a market capitalization of $40.92 billion, a PE ratio of 28.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.10.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.71 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is 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 dividend yield of 1.94%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 51.34%.

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.