Bridgewater Advisors Inc. Purchases Shares of 2,499 Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Bridgewater Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm acquired 2,499 shares of the restaurant operator's stock, valued at approximately $369,000.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC grew its position in Yum! Brands by 151.4% during the 1st quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 156,690 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $24,657,000 after purchasing an additional 94,355 shares during the last quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC purchased a new position in Yum! Brands in the 1st quarter worth approximately $270,000. Sowell Financial Services LLC bought a new position in Yum! Brands in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $939,000. First National Bank Sioux Falls purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands during the 1st quarter valued at $283,000. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.9% in the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 353,103 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $55,564,000 after purchasing an additional 6,673 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on YUM shares. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $151.00 to $153.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Monday. Oppenheimer reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $185.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, April 28th. Piper Sandler raised 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. Citigroup increased their target price on Yum! Brands from $148.00 to $151.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on Yum! Brands from $163.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $159.86.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:YUM traded up $2.07 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $148.21. 1,427,769 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,989,366. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $122.13 and a 52 week high of $163.30. The firm has a market cap of $41.20 billion, a PE ratio of 29.52, a PEG ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.74. The company's 50 day moving average price is $145.76 and its 200-day moving average price is $144.86.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.29 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $1.79 billion during 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 quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.15 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 27th were given a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 27th. Yum! Brands's payout ratio is 56.57%.

Insider Activity

In other Yum! Brands news, 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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,755 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $260,231.40. This trade represents a 13.42% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,117 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.60, for a total value of $1,043,352.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 102,893 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,084,113.80. The trade was a 6.47% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 14,720 shares of company stock valued at $2,150,965 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.33% of the company's stock.

Yum! Brands Profile

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.