Nicolet Advisory Services LLC Boosts Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Nicolet Advisory Services LLC grew its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 32.7% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,759 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 680 shares during the period. Nicolet Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $379,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. EntryPoint Capital LLC grew its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 29.2% in the first quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC now owns 416 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $58,000 after purchasing an additional 94 shares during the last quarter. LRI Investments LLC purchased a new position in Yum! Brands during the first quarter worth $120,000. BOKF NA raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 30.4% in the first quarter. BOKF NA now owns 28,890 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $4,058,000 after acquiring an additional 6,728 shares during the last quarter. Ascent Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 4.3% in the first quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 2,045 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $284,000 after acquiring an additional 84 shares in the last quarter. Finally, B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 9.4% during the first quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 3,846 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $533,000 after acquiring an additional 332 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,005 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.43, for a total value of $941,682.15. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 152,634 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,518,588.62. This represents a 4.39 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders have sold a total of 21,069 shares of company stock worth $2,842,965 in the last ninety days. 0.31% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently weighed in on YUM. Bank of America cut their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $150.00 to $154.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Loop Capital decreased their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $143.00 to $140.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Redburn Atlantic downgraded Yum! Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price objective on Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Twelve 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 company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $145.94.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

NYSE:YUM opened at $135.27 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $134.45 and its 200 day simple moving average is $134.49. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $123.70 and a one year high of $143.20. The stock has a market cap of $37.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 1.10.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.41 by ($0.04). Yum! Brands had a net margin of 21.13% and a negative return on equity of 18.93%. The firm had revenue of $1.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.90 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.44 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.47 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be given a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.98%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 2nd. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 50.09%.

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.