Vestcor Inc Decreases Stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Vestcor Inc lowered its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 2.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 58,205 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 1,577 shares during the period. Vestcor Inc’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $7,809,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,441,170 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,038,775,000 after purchasing an additional 111,147 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,355,367 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $315,996,000 after acquiring an additional 94,026 shares during the period. Cantillon Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 31.7% during the 4th quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,880,379 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $252,272,000 after acquiring an additional 452,339 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,677,290 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $225,025,000 after acquiring an additional 44,428 shares during the period. Finally, Swiss National Bank raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 835,800 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $116,770,000 after acquiring an additional 2,800 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In other news, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 8,638 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.36, for a total transaction of $1,367,913.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 2,970 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $470,329.20. The trade was a 74.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.06, for a total value of $522,883.90. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,474,708.10. This represents a 2.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 48,654 shares of company stock valued at $7,659,176. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

YUM has been the topic of several analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Yum! Brands from $130.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $140.00 to $135.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $162.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $140.00 price objective (down from $158.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Fifteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $150.42.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

NYSE YUM opened at $154.41 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $43.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.58, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $140.18 and a two-hundred day moving average of $136.79. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $122.13 and a 1-year high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st were given a dividend of $0.71 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 21st. This is an increase from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.84%. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is currently 54.41%.

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.