iSAM Funds UK Ltd Buys Shares of 22,996 Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

iSAM Funds UK Ltd bought a new stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 22,996 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $3,495,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in YUM. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.0% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,242,558 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $5,356,869,000 after purchasing an additional 684,946 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 16,179,636 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,459,940,000 after purchasing an additional 487,069 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 2.3% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,131,263 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,945,791,000 after purchasing an additional 297,641 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands during the 2nd quarter worth $602,551,000. Finally, Loomis Sayles & Co. L P boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 3,844,806 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $569,723,000 after purchasing an additional 40,757 shares during the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 1.2%

NYSE:YUM opened at $160.30 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $158.69 and its two-hundred day moving average is $151.85. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $137.33 and a 52 week high of $169.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $44.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 0.64.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.73 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.76 by ($0.03). The firm 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%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.61 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 1,612 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $164.63, for a total transaction of $265,383.56. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 242 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.02, for a total transaction of $40,176.84. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 65,297 shares in the company, valued at $10,840,607.94. This trade represents a 0.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 14,138 shares of company stock valued at $2,289,990 in the last three months. 0.33% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated a “positive” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. 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 research report on Tuesday, February 24th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $165.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $160.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, November 17th. Finally, UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $180.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $174.50.

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.