Carnegie Capital Asset Management LLC Reduces Stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Carnegie Capital Asset Management LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 36.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,331 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 1,362 shares during the quarter. Carnegie Capital Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $305,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Fortitude Family Office LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Clear Street Markets LLC lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 28,400.0% during the 4th quarter. Clear Street Markets LLC now owns 285 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 284 shares in the last quarter. KB Financial Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Finally, Legacy Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $40,000. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

YUM has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $164.00 to $166.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. Oppenheimer upgraded shares of Yum! Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $154.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 5th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $141.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 9th. Argus reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of Yum! Brands from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $150.00 to $135.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $145.00.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:YUM opened at $137.83 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $136.91 and its 200-day moving average price is $130.02. The firm has a market capitalization of $38.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.66, a PEG ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.10. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $115.53 and a one year high of $143.24.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The restaurant operator reported $1.26 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.39 by ($0.13). Yum! Brands had a net margin of 22.57% and a negative return on equity of 17.76%. The business had revenue of $2.04 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.11 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.31 EPS. Yum! Brands’s revenue for the quarter was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.73 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 8th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 21st were given a dividend of $0.67 per share. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.61. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.94%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 20th. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.94%.

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, VP David Eric Russell sold 9,919 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 approximately $2,419,025.43. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,078 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $138.37, for a total transaction of $979,382.86. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 172,128 shares in the company, valued at $23,817,351.36. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP David Eric Russell sold 9,919 shares of Yum! Brands 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 transaction, the vice president now directly owns 18,661 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,419,025.43. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 24,064 shares of company stock valued at $3,228,698 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

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.