YHB Investment Advisors Inc. Buys 360 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

YHB Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 0.9% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 39,971 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 360 shares during the quarter. YHB Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $5,538,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. RB Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Yum! Brands by 9.7% in the 1st quarter. RB Capital Management LLC now owns 4,890 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $580,000 after acquiring an additional 431 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 0.4% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 761,575 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $90,284,000 after purchasing an additional 3,024 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board acquired a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the 1st quarter worth about $664,000. Moors & Cabot Inc. boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 7.4% during the 1st quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 7,530 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $893,000 after purchasing an additional 517 shares during the period. Finally, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. grew its holdings in Yum! Brands by 10.8% in the 1st quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 2,862 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $339,000 after buying an additional 279 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.17% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

YUM has been the subject of several research reports. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Yum! Brands from $155.00 to $150.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 11th. Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $173.00 to $163.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 17th. Guggenheim cut their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $153.00 to $152.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 8th. StockNews.com began coverage on Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, October 5th. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Finally, Bank of America upped their price target on Yum! Brands from $151.00 to $158.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 3rd. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $145.21.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:YUM traded down $0.24 on Wednesday, hitting $127.29. The stock had a trading volume of 75,424 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,583,549. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $123.39 and its 200-day moving average price is $130.61. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $115.53 and a twelve month high of $143.24. The company has a market capitalization of $35.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 1.04.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 1st. The restaurant operator reported $1.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.26 by $0.18. The firm had revenue of $1.71 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.77 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 21.32% and a negative return on equity of 17.45%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.09 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.29 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 8th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 29th were paid a $0.605 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 28th. This represents a $2.42 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.90%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 46.01%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,507 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.55, for a total value of $412,247.85. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 57,325 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,738,553.75. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,804 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $131.23, for a total value of $499,198.92. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 57,325 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,522,759.75. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,507 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.55, for a total value of $412,247.85. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 57,325 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,738,553.75. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 16,911 shares of company stock valued at $2,126,807 in the last 90 days. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Yum! Brands Company Profile

Yum! Brands, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, develops, operates, and franchises quick service restaurants worldwide. The company operates through four segments: the KFC Division, the Taco Bell Division, the Pizza Hut Division, and the Habit Burger Grill Division. It 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.