415,800 Shares in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM Purchased by VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al

Key Points

• The Virginia Retirement Systems ET Al acquired 415,800 shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. valued at approximately $61.6 million, representing about 0.15% ownership of the company.
• Insider transactions saw CEO Scott Mezvinsky sell 275 shares, reducing his position by 13.55%, while total insider sales amounted to 29,078 shares valued at over $4.3 million last quarter.
• Analysts have mixed views on Yum! Brands, with estimates setting an average price target of $161.48 and eleven analysts rating the stock as a Buy.

VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al acquired a new position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 415,800 shares of the restaurant operator's stock, valued at approximately $61,613,000. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al owned approximately 0.15% of Yum! Brands at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in Yum! Brands by 2.7% in the 2nd quarter. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,363 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $498,000 after buying an additional 87 shares during the period. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC grew its holdings in Yum! Brands by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC now owns 153,513 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $22,748,000 after buying an additional 458 shares during the period. Arista Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 2nd quarter valued at about $609,000. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. grew its holdings in Yum! Brands by 8.0% in the 2nd quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 8,414 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $1,247,000 after buying an additional 620 shares during the period. Finally, Oxbow Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Yum! Brands by 992.7% in the 2nd quarter. Oxbow Advisors LLC now owns 22,444 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $3,326,000 after buying an additional 20,390 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, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 275 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $152.59, for a total value of $41,962.25. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,755 shares of the company's stock, valued at $267,795.45. This represents a 13.55% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Weir Mirian M. Graddick sold 2,038 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $145.30, for a total value of $296,121.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 1,233 shares in the company, valued at approximately $179,154.90. The trade was a 62.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 29,078 shares of company stock valued at $4,304,785. Insiders own 0.33% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have commented on YUM shares. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $164.00 price target on Yum! Brands in a report on Tuesday, August 5th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Melius began coverage on Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, July 14th. They set a "buy" rating and a $200.00 target price for the company. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Yum! Brands from $153.00 to $151.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Yum! Brands from $155.00 to $157.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and fourteen have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $161.48.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Yum! Brands stock opened at $145.25 on Friday. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $147.14 and its 200 day moving average price is $146.31. The firm has a market capitalization of $40.31 billion, a PE ratio of 28.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.72. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $122.13 and a one year high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.44 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.46 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $1.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.94 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 21.01% and a net margin of 18.11%.The business's revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.35 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 12th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 2nd were given a dividend of $0.71 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 2nd. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.0%. Yum! Brands's payout ratio is 56.02%.

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.

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