NS Partners Ltd Sells 22,366 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

NS Partners Ltd lowered its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 11.6% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 171,184 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 22,366 shares during the period. Yum! Brands makes up 1.2% of NS Partners Ltd’s holdings, making the stock its 29th largest holding. NS Partners Ltd’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $27,365,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of YUM. Hsbc Holdings PLC grew its stake in Yum! Brands by 5.9% in the 4th quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 569,676 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $86,197,000 after buying an additional 31,836 shares in the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the 1st quarter valued at $1,589,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 5.4% during the 4th quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 584,953 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $88,030,000 after acquiring an additional 30,075 shares during the last quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd purchased a new position in Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter worth $1,264,000. Finally, QRG Capital Management Inc. raised its position in Yum! Brands by 19.8% during the first quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 103,807 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $16,140,000 after purchasing an additional 17,189 shares in the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of YUM opened at $153.36 on Tuesday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $137.33 and a one year high of $170.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $41.85 billion, a PE ratio of 19.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.55. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $153.54 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $155.75.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.58 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $2.17 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.18 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 24.57% and a net margin of 25.42%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 12.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.44 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 6.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 9th will be paid a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 9th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.0%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 37.74%.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have issued reports on YUM. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Tuesday, June 16th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Yum! Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $180.00 to $185.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Yum! Brands to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 24th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $174.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Friday, July 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $174.65.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In related news, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 3,494 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.00, for a total value of $552,052.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 3 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $474. This represents a 99.91% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 268 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $153.15, for a total value of $41,044.20. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 483 shares in the company, valued at $73,971.45. This trade represents a 35.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 90 days, insiders sold 18,512 shares of company stock valued at $2,899,517. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Yum! Brands 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.