Operose Advisors LLC Takes Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Operose Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 350 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $47,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of YUM. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC acquired 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 valued at $33,000. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 52.1% during the fourth quarter. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. now owns 295 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 101 shares during the period. Finally, Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the third quarter worth about $42,000. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP David Eric Russell sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.66, for a total value of $793,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 11,960 shares in the company, valued at $1,897,573.60. This represents a 29.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 5,139 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.70, for a total value of $753,891.30. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 157,893 shares in the company, valued at $23,162,903.10. This represents a 3.15 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 55,271 shares of company stock worth $8,706,576 over the last ninety days. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

YUM has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. TD Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $140.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on Yum! Brands from $162.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Sixteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $152.71.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of Yum! Brands stock opened at $144.85 on Wednesday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $122.13 and a 12-month high of $163.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $40.43 billion, a PE ratio of 27.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.90. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $152.37 and its 200-day moving average is $140.11.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 21st were paid a dividend of $0.71 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. This is a positive change from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.96%. Yum! Brands’s dividend 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.