Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Shares Sold by T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc.

T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lowered its holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 2.6% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 10,374,367 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 273,919 shares during the quarter. Yum! Brands makes up 0.9% of T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 21st largest holding. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $1,391,826,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter worth about $33,000. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. grew its holdings in Yum! Brands by 52.1% during the fourth quarter. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. now owns 295 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $40,000 after acquiring an additional 101 shares during the period. Finally, Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in Yum! Brands during the third quarter valued at approximately $42,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

YUM has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $165.00 to $163.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company increased 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. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group increased 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. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $148.00 to $151.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Sixteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $152.62.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 30,604 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.46, for a total transaction of $4,880,113.84. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 160,296 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,560,800.16. The trade was a 16.03 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 8,638 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.36, for a total value of $1,367,913.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 2,970 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $470,329.20. The trade was a 74.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 55,271 shares of company stock worth $8,706,576 in the last ninety days. 0.33% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 3.3 %

NYSE YUM opened at $145.09 on Wednesday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $152.00 and its 200-day simple moving average is $140.27. The firm has a market cap of $40.49 billion, a PE ratio of 27.79, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.90. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $122.13 and a 52 week high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced 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 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 yield of 1.96%. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is 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.