AMF Tjanstepension AB Has $85.76 Million Stock Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Key Points

• AMF Tjanstepension AB significantly increased its Yum! Brands stake in the first quarter, boosting holdings by 231.6% to 551,573 shares worth about $85.76 million.
• Analysts remain generally positive on YUM, with a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $176.12; recent moves included Morgan Stanley upgrading the stock to overweight.
• Yum! Brands continues to return capital to shareholders through a quarterly $0.75 dividend and a newly approved $4 billion share repurchase program, which could cover up to 9.4% of its shares.

AMF Tjanstepension AB increased its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) by 231.6% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 551,573 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after buying an additional 385,214 shares during the quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB owned 0.20% of Yum! Brands worth $85,759,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Steph & Co. boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 107.5% during the 1st quarter. Steph & Co. now owns 166 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 86 shares in the last quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 1st quarter valued at $28,000. Wiser Advisor Group LLC bought a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 3rd quarter worth about $28,000. Finally, Community Bank N.A. purchased a new position in Yum! Brands in the third quarter worth $29,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

YUM has been the subject of several recent research reports. Evercore reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Tuesday, June 16th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $177.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Yum! Brands from a "buy (b+)" rating to a "buy (b)" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Yum! Brands from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $180.00 to $185.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $176.12.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Sean Tresvant sold 3,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.68, for a total value of $464,040.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 3,140 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $485,695.20. This trade represents a 48.86% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 270 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $148.14, for a total value of $39,997.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 64,282 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $9,522,735.48. This trade represents a 0.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 12,423 shares of company stock valued at $1,953,721. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

YUM stock opened at $163.57 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $45.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.38, a P/E/G ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.56. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $154.51 and a 200-day moving average price of $156.85. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $137.33 and a 1-year high of $170.14.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The restaurant operator reported $1.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.39 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $2.06 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.04 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 20.48% and a negative return on equity of 23.51%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.30 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 6.72 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 27th were paid a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 27th. Yum! Brands's dividend payout ratio is 48.39%.

Yum! Brands declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Tuesday, June 16th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the restaurant operator to repurchase up to 9.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.