Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC Trims Stock Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC trimmed its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 4.3% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 2,984 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 133 shares during the quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $470,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter worth $25,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter worth $25,000. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter worth $33,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. lifted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 436.5% during the fourth quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 279 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 227 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LGT Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter valued at $41,000. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on YUM. Redburn Atlantic raised Yum! Brands from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $145.00 to $177.00 in a report on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Yum! Brands from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $167.00 price target for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 4th. TD Securities reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $158.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $185.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Guggenheim raised their price objective on Yum! Brands from $155.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Fourteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $158.24.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 5,293 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.24, for a total value of $816,392.32. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 157,893 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,353,416.32. This trade represents a 3.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 268 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $145.97, for a total transaction of $39,119.96. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,755 shares in the company, valued at $256,177.35. The trade was a 13.25% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 17,763 shares of company stock valued at $2,637,564. Insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:YUM opened at $143.88 on Friday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $145.61 and its 200-day simple moving average is $143.29. The firm has a market capitalization of $39.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.74. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $122.13 and a 12 month high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.29 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $1.79 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.85 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 20.33% and a net margin of 19.68%. Yum! Brands’s revenue was up 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.15 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 27th were given a $0.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 27th. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.97%. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is currently 56.57%.

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.