Beck Mack & Oliver LLC Purchases Shares of 1,760 Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Key Points

• Beck Mack & Oliver LLC has acquired 1,760 shares of Yum! Brands, valued at approximately $277,000, in their recent filing with the SEC.
• Yum! Brands has announced a quarterly dividend of $0.71, with an annualized yield of 1.9%, to be paid on September 12th.
• Brokerages have given mixed ratings on Yum! Brands, with a current consensus of Hold and a price target of $161.23, while some analysts recommend a buy rating.

Beck Mack & Oliver LLC purchased a new position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 1,760 shares of the restaurant operator's stock, valued at approximately $277,000.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in Yum! Brands by 14,795.6% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 769,805 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $121,137,000 after acquiring an additional 764,637 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Yum! Brands in the first quarter valued at $97,453,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Yum! Brands by 1.4% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 34,109,219 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $5,367,427,000 after purchasing an additional 483,918 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in Yum! Brands by 28.5% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,940,044 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $305,286,000 after purchasing an additional 430,511 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new position in Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $43,944,000. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company's stock.

Yum! Brands Trading Down 0.7%

Shares of YUM stock traded down $0.94 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $143.61. 1,484,374 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,125,664. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $146.92 and a 200 day simple moving average of $148.13. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $122.13 and a 52-week high of $163.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $39.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.33, a P/E/G ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 0.73.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.46 by ($0.02). Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 21.01% and a net margin of 18.11%.The company had revenue of $1.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.94 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.35 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 12th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 2nd will be issued a $0.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 2nd. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.0%. Yum! Brands's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 56.02%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, Director Weir Mirian M. Graddick sold 2,038 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $145.30, for a total value of $296,121.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 1,233 shares of the company's stock, valued at $179,154.90. This trade represents a 62.31% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 272 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,755 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $260,231.40. The trade was a 13.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 29,016 shares of company stock valued at $4,271,543 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.33% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Barclays reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and set a $164.00 price objective (down previously from $167.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Tuesday, August 5th. Evercore ISI decreased their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $170.00 to $165.00 and set an "in-line" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Yum! Brands from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $167.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Wednesday, June 4th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $155.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th. Finally, Guggenheim reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $167.00 target price (up from $165.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and thirteen have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $161.23.

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.