Asset Management One Co. Ltd. Boosts Stock Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Asset Management One Co. Ltd. grew its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) by 5.3% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 134,710 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after buying an additional 6,793 shares during the quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd.'s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $21,198,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,604,632 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $1,021,194,000 after buying an additional 163,462 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 20.4% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,545,872 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $475,714,000 after purchasing an additional 601,361 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter worth approximately $418,692,000. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,521,583 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $338,296,000 after purchasing an additional 24,681 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,355,367 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $315,996,000 after purchasing an additional 94,026 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company's stock.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of YUM stock opened at $147.31 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $40.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.34, a PEG ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 0.74. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $122.13 and a one year high of $163.30. The company's fifty day moving average price is $145.06 and its 200-day moving average price is $143.44.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.30 EPS 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 the consensus estimate of $1.85 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 18.42% and a negative return on equity of 20.80%. The company's revenue was up 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.15 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 27th were given a dividend of $0.71 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 27th. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.93%. Yum! Brands's payout ratio is 56.57%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

YUM has been the topic of several research reports. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Yum! Brands from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $170.00 to $162.00 in a report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $151.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $130.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $157.86.

Insider Activity

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 268 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $145.97, for a total value of $39,119.96. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,755 shares in the company, valued at approximately $256,177.35. The trade was a 13.25% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 5,139 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.70, for a total transaction of $753,891.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 157,893 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,162,903.10. This represents a 3.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 12,470 shares of company stock worth $1,821,172 in the last three months. 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.

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