Advisor Resource Council Takes Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Advisor Resource Council bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 5,103 shares of the restaurant operator's stock, valued at approximately $794,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. raised its position in Yum! Brands by 436.5% in the 4th quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 279 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 227 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LGT Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter valued at $41,000. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

YUM has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Oppenheimer reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $185.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $176.00 to $174.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Finally, Citigroup increased their target price on Yum! Brands from $148.00 to $151.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Fourteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $158.24.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

YUM stock traded up $0.62 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $138.98. 2,956,501 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,002,795. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $145.10 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $143.39. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $122.13 and a one year high of $163.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $38.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.74.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.30 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.29 by $0.01. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 18.42% and a negative return on equity of 20.80%. The business had revenue of $1.79 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.85 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.15 EPS. Yum! Brands's revenue was up 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 27th were given a $0.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 27th. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.04%. Yum! Brands's payout ratio is presently 56.57%.

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

In related news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 268 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $145.97, for a total transaction of $39,119.96. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,755 shares in the company, valued at $256,177.35. This represents a 13.25% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,063 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $145.57, for a total value of $1,028,160.91. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 157,893 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $22,984,484.01. This represents a 4.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 12,470 shares of company stock worth $1,821,172. Company insiders own 0.33% of the company's stock.

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.