MV Capital Management Inc. Decreases Stock Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

MV Capital Management Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 18.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 352 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 81 shares during the quarter. MV Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $47,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of YUM. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter worth about $418,692,000. Cantillon Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 31.7% during the fourth quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,880,379 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $252,272,000 after buying an additional 452,339 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $59,289,000. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 140.3% in the fourth quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 437,625 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $58,712,000 after buying an additional 255,495 shares during the period. Finally, Anchor Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,098,000. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on YUM. Barclays upped their price objective on Yum! Brands from $162.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded shares of 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 research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $176.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, TD Cowen reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $140.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Fifteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $151.79.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 30,604 shares of the firm’s 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 160,296 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,560,800.16. This trade represents a 16.03 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP David Eric Russell sold 5,000 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.66, for a total transaction 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. The trade was a 29.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 50,132 shares of company stock worth $7,952,685. Company insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 1.2 %

NYSE:YUM opened at $155.72 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $43.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.83, a PEG ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $122.13 and a 52 week high of $163.30. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $147.14 and a 200 day moving average of $138.65.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 21st were paid a $0.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 21st. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.82%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.