Banque Cantonale Vaudoise Makes New $1.62 Million Investment in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Key Points

• Banque Cantonale Vaudoise has acquired 10,266 shares of Yum! Brands, Inc., valued at approximately $1,615,000, in the first quarter of this year.
• Yum! Brands reported quarterly earnings of $1.30 per share, slightly surpassing analysts' expectations, and an 11.8% year-over-year revenue increase, totaling $1.79 billion.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.71 per share, representing an annualized dividend of $2.84, with a yield of 1.93%.

Banque Cantonale Vaudoise acquired a new position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 10,266 shares of the restaurant operator's stock, valued at approximately $1,615,000.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake 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 worth $1,021,194,000 after purchasing an additional 163,462 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 20.4% during 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 in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.0% during 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 in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 12.0% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,284,171 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $306,444,000 after purchasing an additional 244,264 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Magellan Asset Management Ltd increased its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 6.2% during the fourth quarter. Magellan Asset Management Ltd now owns 2,064,738 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $277,005,000 after purchasing an additional 120,434 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on YUM shares. Melius initiated coverage on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, July 14th. They set a "buy" rating and a $200.00 target price for the company. Guggenheim upped their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $155.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $150.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. TD Securities reaffirmed a "hold" rating and set a $158.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic raised shares of Yum! Brands from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their price objective for the company from $145.00 to $177.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 10th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $159.86.

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 272 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $148.28, for a total transaction of $40,332.16. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,755 shares in the company, valued at $260,231.40. This represents a 13.42% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,117 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $146.60, for a total transaction of $1,043,352.20. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 102,893 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,084,113.80. This trade represents a 6.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 14,720 shares of company stock worth $2,150,965. Company insiders own 0.33% of the company's stock.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of YUM stock traded up $1.26 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $145.41. The company had a trading volume of 1,930,682 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,613,203. The company's fifty day moving average is $145.65 and its 200 day moving average is $146.12. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $122.13 and a fifty-two week high of $163.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $40.42 billion, a PE ratio of 28.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.73.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $1.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.85 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.15 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 27th were issued a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 27th. Yum! Brands's dividend payout ratio is currently 56.57%.

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.