Raymond James & Associates Cuts Stock Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Raymond James & Associates cut its stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 0.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 349,413 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 765 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates owned about 0.12% of Yum! Brands worth $45,654,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 16.8% during the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 24,692,484 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $3,421,144,000 after purchasing an additional 3,549,709 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 4.6% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,490,727 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,592,040,000 after buying an additional 507,054 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.5% in the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,947,399 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $784,673,000 after buying an additional 90,152 shares during the last quarter. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP grew its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 3.8% in the third quarter. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP now owns 5,766,650 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $720,485,000 after acquiring an additional 210,238 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 19.6% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 5,507,237 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $652,773,000 after acquiring an additional 901,181 shares during the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have weighed in on YUM shares. Guggenheim boosted their price objective on Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of Yum! Brands from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $150.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $135.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $146.00 to $144.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $141.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 9th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $145.00.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Shares of YUM opened at $137.32 on Thursday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $115.53 and a 52-week high of $143.24. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $134.30 and its 200 day simple moving average is $128.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $38.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.10.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The restaurant operator reported $1.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by ($0.13). The firm had revenue of $2.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.11 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 17.76% and a net margin of 22.57%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.31 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 8th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 21st were issued a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.95%. This is an increase from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.61. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 20th. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.94%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,067 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.34, for a total value of $963,514.78. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 175,377 shares in the company, valued at $23,910,900.18. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,067 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.34, for a total value of $963,514.78. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 175,377 shares in the company, valued at $23,910,900.18. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP David Eric Russell sold 9,919 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.63, for a total transaction of $1,285,799.97. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 18,661 shares in the company, valued at $2,419,025.43. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 20,742 shares of company stock worth $2,734,628 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

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.