Apollon Wealth Management LLC Cuts Stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Key Points

• Apollon Wealth Management LLC reduced its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. by 23.6% in the second quarter, owning 6,209 shares worth approximately $920,000.
• Numerous hedge funds have adjusted their positions in Yum! Brands, with Vanguard Group increasing its stake by 1.4% to approximately $5.37 billion.
• Yum! Brands declared a quarterly dividend of $0.71 per share, resulting in an annualized dividend of $2.84 and a dividend yield of 2.0%.

Apollon Wealth Management LLC reduced its stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) by 23.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 6,209 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after selling 1,914 shares during the period. Apollon Wealth Management LLC's holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $920,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of YUM. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Yum! Brands in the first quarter valued at approximately $97,453,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.4% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 34,109,219 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $5,367,427,000 after purchasing an additional 483,918 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 2,288.1% during the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 502,267 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $74,426,000 after purchasing an additional 481,235 shares during the period. Platinum Investment Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the second quarter valued at approximately $64,352,000. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 28.5% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,940,044 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $305,286,000 after purchasing an additional 430,511 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 12,220 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $148.24, for a total transaction of $1,811,492.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 275 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $152.59, for a total transaction of $41,962.25. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,755 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $267,795.45. This trade represents a 13.55% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 29,078 shares of company stock worth $4,304,785. 0.33% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Yum! Brands stock opened at $143.98 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $39.96 billion, a PE ratio of 28.40, a P/E/G ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $146.99 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $146.60. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $122.13 and a 12 month high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.44 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.46 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $1.93 billion during 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 for the quarter was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.35 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 12th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 2nd were issued 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 dividend 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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