Bank of America Corp DE Sells 440,518 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Bank of America Corp DE lowered its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) by 11.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 3,355,528 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after selling 440,518 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE owned approximately 1.20% of Yum! Brands worth $450,178,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. raised its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 436.5% in the 4th quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 279 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 227 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. raised its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 52.1% in the 4th quarter. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. now owns 295 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 101 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In other Yum! Brands news, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 8,638 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 in the company, 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 SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 5,139 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $146.70, for a total value of $753,891.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 157,893 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,162,903.10. This trade represents a 3.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 55,271 shares of company stock valued at $8,706,576. Insiders own 0.33% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

YUM has been the topic of a number of research reports. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Yum! Brands from $156.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Cowen reissued a "hold" rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Oppenheimer reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $185.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, April 28th. TD Cowen reaffirmed a "hold" rating and set a $140.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein lowered shares of Yum! Brands from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $140.00 to $135.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Sixteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $156.70.

Yum! Brands Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of NYSE:YUM traded up $0.27 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $147.40. The company had a trading volume of 239,735 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,996,276. The company's 50 day moving average price is $151.04 and its 200 day moving average price is $141.59. The stock has a market cap of $41.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.24, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.77. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $122.13 and a 52-week high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.29 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $1.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.85 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 20.33% and a net margin of 19.68%. The company's revenue was up 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.15 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Yum! Brands

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.