Summit Investment Advisors Inc. Lowers Stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Summit Investment Advisors Inc. lessened its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 11.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,144 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 422 shares during the quarter. Summit Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $422,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Yum! Brands by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,604,632 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,021,194,000 after buying an additional 163,462 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter valued at $418,692,000. FMR LLC raised its position in Yum! Brands by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,521,583 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $338,296,000 after purchasing an additional 24,681 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in Yum! Brands by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,355,367 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $315,996,000 after buying an additional 94,026 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 12.0% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,284,171 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $306,444,000 after buying an additional 244,264 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 5,139 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $146.70, for a total transaction of $753,891.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 157,893 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,162,903.10. This represents a 3.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP David Eric Russell sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.66, for a total value of $793,300.00. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 11,960 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,897,573.60. This represents a 29.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 55,271 shares of company stock valued at $8,706,576. 0.33% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. TD Securities restated a “hold” rating and set a $164.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Monday, March 31st. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $130.00 to $148.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Guggenheim increased 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. Sixteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $152.71.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE YUM opened at $143.13 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $152.19 and a 200 day moving average of $140.18. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $122.13 and a twelve month high of $163.30. The firm has a market cap of $39.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.42, a PEG ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.90.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Investors of record on Friday, February 21st were given a dividend of $0.71 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.98%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 54.41%.

Yum! Brands Company Profile

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.