Van ECK Associates Corp Boosts Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Van ECK Associates Corp increased its holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 85.7% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 96,436 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 44,515 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $12,600,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP raised its position in Yum! Brands by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP now owns 5,766,650 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $720,485,000 after purchasing an additional 210,238 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in Yum! Brands by 3.9% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,278,341 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $409,596,000 after purchasing an additional 124,080 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG raised its holdings in Yum! Brands by 121.8% in the 3rd quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 1,819,809 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $227,367,000 after purchasing an additional 999,443 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,521,511 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $190,098,000 after purchasing an additional 12,654 shares during the period. Finally, California Public Employees Retirement System boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 5.8% during the 4th quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 1,266,114 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $165,430,000 after purchasing an additional 69,703 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have commented on YUM shares. Oppenheimer upgraded shares of Yum! Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $154.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, January 5th. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $135.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $133.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $144.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut Yum! Brands from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $150.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $144.44.

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, VP David Eric Russell sold 9,919 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.63, for a total value of $1,285,799.97. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Yum! Brands news, 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 value of $1,285,799.97. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 18,661 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,419,025.43. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,067 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 175,377 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,910,900.18. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 24,064 shares of company stock valued at $3,228,698. 0.31% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of YUM stock opened at $135.02 on Friday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $115.53 and a one year high of $143.20. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $138.25 and its 200-day moving average price is $131.42. The company has a market capitalization of $38.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.94, a PEG ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.07.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The restaurant operator reported $1.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.20 by ($0.05). Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 18.64% and a net margin of 22.92%. The business had revenue of $1.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.71 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.06 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.