Benin Management CORP Buys Shares of 2,131 Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Benin Management CORP purchased a new position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 2,131 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $316,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Cantillon Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 13.1% in the 2nd quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC now owns 2,063,179 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $305,722,000 after buying an additional 238,615 shares during the last quarter. Retirement Planning Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the 2nd quarter worth $255,000. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 9.2% in the 2nd quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 5,413 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $802,000 after buying an additional 454 shares during the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 3.4% in the 2nd quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 635,355 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $94,647,000 after buying an additional 21,143 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bogart Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 5.6% in the 2nd quarter. Bogart Wealth LLC now owns 1,539 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $228,000 after buying an additional 82 shares during the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Yum! Brands from $162.00 to $160.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $164.00 target price (down from $167.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Tuesday, August 5th. Citigroup lifted their target price on Yum! Brands from $156.00 to $158.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday. Morgan Stanley set a $165.00 target price on Yum! Brands in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their target price on Yum! Brands from $155.00 to $157.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and thirteen have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $163.18.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 275 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $152.59, for a total value of $41,962.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,755 shares in the company, valued at approximately $267,795.45. This trade represents a 13.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 12,220 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $148.24, for a total value of $1,811,492.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 29,078 shares of company stock worth $4,304,785. Insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Trading Up 0.3%

Shares of YUM stock opened at $148.64 on Wednesday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $122.13 and a 12-month high of $163.30. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $147.41 and its 200-day moving average price is $146.23. The stock has a market capitalization of $41.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.72.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.46 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $1.93 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.94 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 21.01% and a net margin of 18.11%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.35 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 12th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 2nd were given a $0.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 2nd. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 56.02%.

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.