Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Shares Purchased by M&T Bank Corp

M&T Bank Corp increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM – Get Rating) by 13.8% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 86,823 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 10,519 shares during the quarter. M&T Bank Corp’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $9,234,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its position in Yum! Brands by 22.0% during the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 103,527 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $11,009,000 after acquiring an additional 18,698 shares during the last quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund raised its stake in Yum! Brands by 4.7% during the third quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund now owns 10,197 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,084,000 after purchasing an additional 454 shares during the period. Kentucky Retirement Systems raised its stake in Yum! Brands by 5.2% during the third quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems now owns 22,273 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,369,000 after purchasing an additional 1,108 shares during the period. Alpha Paradigm Partners LLC purchased a new position in Yum! Brands during the third quarter worth about $293,000. Finally, Balyasny Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Yum! Brands by 24.6% during the third quarter. Balyasny Asset Management LLC now owns 335,628 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $35,691,000 after purchasing an additional 66,172 shares during the period. 77.54% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Yum! Brands news, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 3,925 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.00, for a total transaction of $510,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 14,393 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,871,090. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 4,259 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.52, for a total value of $547,366.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 31,715 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,076,011.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 3,925 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.00, for a total transaction of $510,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 14,393 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,871,090. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.37% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Shares of YUM stock opened at $127.13 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $35.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $128.85 and a 200 day moving average price of $122.56. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $103.96 and a fifty-two week high of $133.77.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 8th. The restaurant operator reported $1.31 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.26 by $0.05. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 19.37% and a negative return on equity of 15.16%. The company had revenue of $2.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.92 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.02 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 10th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.605 per share. This represents a $2.42 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.90%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 21st. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is 53.07%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on YUM shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $122.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 18th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $137.00 to $142.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 9th. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $146.00 to $155.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 14th. Finally, Cowen boosted their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $130.00 to $155.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, December 5th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $145.81.

About Yum! Brands

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Yum! Brands, Inc operates as a service restaurant company. The firm engages in the development, operation, franchise, and licenses of a system of restaurants. It operates through the following segments: KFC Division, Pizza Hut Division, Taco Bell Division, and Habit Burger Grill Division. The KFC Division segment consists of all operations of the KFC concept.