Russell Investments Group Ltd. Has $73.39 Million Stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 14.8% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 482,469 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 62,317 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. owned 0.17% of Yum! Brands worth $73,394,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Salomon & Ludwin LLC increased its stake in Yum! Brands by 679.2% in the third quarter. Salomon & Ludwin LLC now owns 187 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 163 shares in the last quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 81.7% during the 3rd quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 198 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. CNB Bank boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 833.3% during the 3rd quarter. CNB Bank now owns 224 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the 2nd quarter valued at about $36,000. Finally, Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at about $40,000. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

YUM has been the topic of a number of research reports. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $179.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, January 7th. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $180.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $160.00 price objective on Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, November 17th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Yum! Brands from $165.00 to $176.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. Finally, Gordon Haskett upgraded Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 8th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $174.50.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

YUM opened at $159.28 on Wednesday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $137.33 and a fifty-two week high of $169.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $44.03 billion, a PE ratio of 28.70, a P/E/G ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.64. The company’s 50-day moving average is $158.25 and its 200 day moving average is $151.67.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its quarterly 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 company had revenue of $2.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.45 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 18.98% and a negative return on equity of 22.42%. Yum! Brands’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.61 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Aaron Powell sold 12,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $161.44, for a total transaction of $1,937,280.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 14,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,365,096. This represents a 45.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 242 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.02, for a total value of $40,176.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 65,297 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,840,607.94. The trade was a 0.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 14,138 shares of company stock worth $2,289,990. 0.33% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.