Stonegate Investment Group LLC Buys Shares of 1,788 Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Stonegate Investment Group LLC bought a new stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm bought 1,788 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $240,000.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Toronto Dominion Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 15.5% in the 3rd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 127,446 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $17,805,000 after purchasing an additional 17,133 shares in the last quarter. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at $1,262,000. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 689,631 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $96,348,000 after acquiring an additional 20,966 shares during the last quarter. Infusive Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 15.1% in the 3rd quarter. Infusive Asset Management Inc. now owns 43,419 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $6,066,000 after acquiring an additional 5,684 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Forsta AP Fonden lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 6.6% in the 3rd quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 104,900 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $14,656,000 after acquiring an additional 6,500 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Trading Up 0.1 %

YUM stock opened at $129.31 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $132.84 and a 200-day moving average price of $133.58. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $122.13 and a 1-year high of $143.20. The firm has a market cap of $36.09 billion, a PE ratio of 24.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 1.11.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.37 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.41 by ($0.04). Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 18.93% and a net margin of 21.13%. The business had revenue of $1.83 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.90 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.44 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were paid a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.07%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 50.09%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on YUM shares. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Redburn Atlantic cut Yum! Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Bank of America dropped their price target on Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Sanford C. Bernstein cut Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $140.00 to $135.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, Argus upgraded Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 price target for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 31st. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $144.89.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,059 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $135.94, for a total value of $959,600.46. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,385 shares in the company, valued at $20,307,396.90. This trade represents a 4.51 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.