Aquatic Capital Management LLC Cuts Stock Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Aquatic Capital Management LLC cut its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) by 28.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 69,035 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after selling 27,765 shares during the period. Aquatic Capital Management LLC's holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $9,262,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Yum! Brands by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,604,632 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $1,021,194,000 after acquiring an additional 163,462 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter valued at about $418,692,000. FMR LLC raised its position in Yum! Brands by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,521,583 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $338,296,000 after purchasing an additional 24,681 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,355,367 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $315,996,000 after purchasing an additional 94,026 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 12.0% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,284,171 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $306,444,000 after buying an additional 244,264 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Yum! Brands news, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 8,638 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.36, for a total transaction of $1,367,913.68. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 2,970 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $470,329.20. This trade represents a 74.41 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 30,604 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.46, for a total value of $4,880,113.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 160,296 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $25,560,800.16. This trade represents a 16.03 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 55,271 shares of company stock worth $8,706,576. 0.33% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on YUM. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Yum! Brands from $156.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $150.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Guggenheim boosted their price target on Yum! Brands from $155.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on Yum! Brands from $163.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday. Seventeen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $155.19.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

YUM traded up $0.22 during trading on Friday, hitting $148.82. The stock had a trading volume of 684,785 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,009,290. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $151.89 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $140.88. The company has a market capitalization of $41.45 billion, a PE ratio of 28.51, a PEG ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.90. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $122.13 and a twelve month high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.30 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.29 by $0.01. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 19.68% and a negative return on equity of 20.33%. The company had revenue of $1.79 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.85 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.15 EPS. Yum! Brands's revenue was up 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Investors of record on Friday, February 21st were given a $0.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.91%. This is a positive change from Yum! Brands's previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. Yum! Brands's dividend payout ratio is currently 54.41%.

Yum! Brands Profile

Yum! Brands, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, develops, operates, and franchises quick service restaurants worldwide. The company operates through the KFC Division, the Taco Bell Division, the Pizza Hut Division, and the Habit Burger Grill Division segments. It also operates restaurants under the KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and The Habit Burger Grill brands, which specialize in chicken, pizza, made-to-order chargrilled burgers, sandwiches, Mexican-style food categories, and other food products.