First National Bank & Trust Co. of Newtown Cuts Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

First National Bank & Trust Co. of Newtown lessened its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 1.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,587 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 112 shares during the quarter. First National Bank & Trust Co. of Newtown’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $1,253,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in YUM. RB Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 9.7% in the 1st quarter. RB Capital Management LLC now owns 4,890 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $580,000 after purchasing an additional 431 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Yum! Brands by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 761,575 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $90,284,000 after acquiring an additional 3,024 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board purchased a new position in Yum! Brands during the 1st quarter valued at about $664,000. Moors & Cabot Inc. increased its holdings in Yum! Brands by 7.4% during the 1st quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 7,530 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $893,000 after acquiring an additional 517 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. increased its holdings in Yum! Brands by 10.8% during the 1st quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 2,862 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $339,000 after acquiring an additional 279 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have weighed in on YUM shares. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “hold” rating and set a $135.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, January 4th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $141.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 9th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $164.00 to $166.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $133.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $146.00 to $144.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 8th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $145.00.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of YUM traded up $0.31 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $138.18. The company had a trading volume of 397,737 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,921,863. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $137.06 and its 200-day simple moving average is $130.08. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $115.53 and a 1-year high of $143.24. The stock has a market cap of $38.90 billion, a PE ratio of 24.66, a P/E/G ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.10.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The restaurant operator reported $1.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.39 by ($0.13). Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 17.76% and a net margin of 22.57%. The company had revenue of $2.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.11 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.31 earnings per share. Yum! Brands’s revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 8th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 21st were given a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 20th. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.61. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.94%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 47.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, VP David Eric Russell sold 9,919 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.63, for a total transaction of $1,285,799.97. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 18,661 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,419,025.43. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,078 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $138.37, for a total transaction of $979,382.86. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 172,128 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,817,351.36. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, VP David Eric Russell sold 9,919 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.63, for a total transaction of $1,285,799.97. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 18,661 shares in the company, valued at $2,419,025.43. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 24,064 shares of company stock valued at $3,228,698 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands 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.