United Bank Makes New $1.58 Million Investment in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

United Bank purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor purchased 9,885 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $1,580,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in YUM. Steph & Co. increased its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 107.5% during the first quarter. Steph & Co. now owns 166 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 86 shares during the period. MV Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Yum! Brands in the first quarter worth approximately $28,000. Wiser Advisor Group LLC purchased a new position in Yum! Brands in the third quarter worth approximately $28,000. Finally, Kelleher Financial Advisors acquired a new position in Yum! Brands during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $29,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on YUM. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Yum! Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $180.00 to $185.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $165.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Citigroup raised their price target on Yum! Brands from $175.00 to $178.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Sunday, July 12th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut Yum! Brands from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $174.65.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 261 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $153.15, for a total transaction of $39,972.15. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 63,771 shares in the company, valued at $9,766,528.65. This trade represents a 0.41% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, VP David Eric Russell sold 7,961 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $153.15, for a total value of $1,219,227.15. Following the transaction, the vice president directly owned 11,960 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,831,674. This trade represents a 39.96% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last three months, insiders sold 18,549 shares of company stock worth $2,890,168. Corporate insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

NYSE YUM opened at $146.15 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $153.46 and its 200 day moving average price is $156.02. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $137.33 and a 12 month high of $170.14. The company has a market capitalization of $39.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 0.55.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.62 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.58 by $0.04. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 25.42% and a negative return on equity of 24.57%. The firm had revenue of $2.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.18 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.44 earnings per share. Yum! Brands’s quarterly revenue was up 12.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 6.42 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Tuesday, June 16th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the restaurant operator to purchase up to 9.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.