Junto Capital Management LP Invests $133.25 Million in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Junto Capital Management LP bought a new stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund bought 876,654 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $133,251,000. Yum! Brands accounts for 2.7% of Junto Capital Management LP’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest holding.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Hilltop Holdings Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 10.3% during the 3rd quarter. Hilltop Holdings Inc. now owns 2,457 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $373,000 after acquiring an additional 230 shares in the last quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 7.9% in the 3rd quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC now owns 146,403 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $22,253,000 after purchasing an additional 10,767 shares in the last quarter. Delta Global Management LP raised its holdings in Yum! Brands by 38.1% in the 3rd quarter. Delta Global Management LP now owns 14,842 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,256,000 after purchasing an additional 4,097 shares during the period. Destination Wealth Management boosted its position in Yum! Brands by 9.5% during the third quarter. Destination Wealth Management now owns 2,525 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $384,000 after purchasing an additional 219 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Elevation Point Wealth Partners LLC boosted its position in Yum! Brands by 33.0% during the third quarter. Elevation Point Wealth Partners LLC now owns 3,357 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $510,000 after purchasing an additional 833 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 284 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.02, for a total value of $47,149.68. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 242 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.02, for a total value of $40,176.84. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 65,297 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,840,607.94. This represents a 0.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders sold 14,138 shares of company stock worth $2,289,990. Insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently commented on YUM shares. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $180.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 24th. BMO Capital Markets restated a “market perform” rating and set a $165.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 6th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $174.50.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

NYSE YUM opened at $160.30 on Monday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $158.69 and a 200 day moving average price of $151.92. The company has a market cap of $44.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.88, a P/E/G ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.64. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $137.33 and a one year high of $169.39.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.76 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $2.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.45 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 22.42% and a net margin of 18.98%.Yum! Brands’s quarterly revenue was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.61 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 6th. Investors of record on Friday, February 20th were paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 20th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 54.05%.

Yum! Brands Company Profile

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.