Vontobel Holding Ltd. Sells 9,646 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Vontobel Holding Ltd. cut its stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 27.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 25,502 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 9,646 shares during the quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $3,332,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several 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% during the first quarter. RB Capital Management LLC now owns 4,890 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $580,000 after acquiring an additional 431 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 0.4% in the 1st 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 in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $664,000. Moors & Cabot Inc. raised its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 7.4% during the first quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 7,530 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $893,000 after buying an additional 517 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 10.8% in the first quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 2,862 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $339,000 after buying an additional 279 shares in the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In other news, 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 completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 18,661 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,419,025.43. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,067 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 175,377 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,910,900.18. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, VP David Eric Russell sold 9,919 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 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 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 Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:YUM opened at $137.84 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $137.06 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $130.08. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $115.53 and a 1 year high of $143.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $38.80 billion, a PE ratio of 24.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.10.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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). 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 analysts’ expectations of $2.11 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.31 EPS. Yum! Brands’s revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on YUM shares. Argus reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Oppenheimer raised Yum! Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $154.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, January 5th. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $160.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $141.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 9th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of Yum! Brands from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $150.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $145.00.

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.