Insider Selling: Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) CEO Sells $265,383.56 in Stock

Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 1,612 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $164.63, for a total transaction of $265,383.56. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website.

Scott Mezvinsky also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, December 1st, Scott Mezvinsky sold 276 shares of Yum! Brands stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $153.17, for a total transaction of $42,274.92.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

YUM opened at $163.45 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $155.84 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $150.04. The firm has a market cap of $45.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.45, a PEG ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.66. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $137.33 and a 1-year high of $165.32.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.73 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.76 by ($0.03). Yum! Brands had a net margin of 18.98% and a negative return on equity of 22.42%. The firm had revenue of $2.51 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.45 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.61 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 6th. Investors of record on Friday, February 20th will be given a dividend of $0.75 per share. This is an increase from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 20th. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.17%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have weighed in on YUM shares. Wells Fargo & Company restated a “positive” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “overweight” rating and set a $179.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Wednesday, January 7th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $165.00 to $176.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $165.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, December 29th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $174.00.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Yum! Brands

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of YUM. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,242,558 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $5,356,869,000 after buying an additional 684,946 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors grew its position in Yum! Brands by 20.0% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 19,419,826 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,938,139,000 after acquiring an additional 3,240,190 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in Yum! Brands by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,164,814 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,991,573,000 after acquiring an additional 124,720 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Yum! Brands by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,800,382 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,334,427,000 after acquiring an additional 121,304 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $706,799,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

About Yum! Brands

Yum! Brands, Inc (NYSE: YUM) is a global quick-service restaurant company that develops, operates and franchises a portfolio of well-known restaurant brands. The company’s principal brands are KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, each focused on distinct product categories—KFC on fried chicken and related menu items, Pizza Hut on pizza and complementary offerings, and Taco Bell on Mexican-inspired quick-service food. Yum! is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky and was formed as Tricon Global Restaurants in 1997 when PepsiCo spun off its restaurant businesses, later adopting the Yum! Brands name.

The company’s operating model centers on brand development, system growth and franchising; a large portion of its restaurants are operated by independent franchisees, and Yum! generates revenue through franchise royalties and fees in addition to sales from company-operated locations.