BW Gestao de Investimentos Ltda. Has $2.47 Million Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Key Points

• BW Gestao de Investimentos Ltda. has reduced its holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. by 50%, now owning 15,700 shares worth approximately $2.47 million.
• Other institutional investors, such as GAMMA Investing LLC, significantly increased their holdings in Yum!, with GAMMA boosting its stake by over 14,795%.
• Yum! Brands recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.71 per share, resulting in an annualized dividend yield of 2.0%.

BW Gestao de Investimentos Ltda. reduced its holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) by 50.0% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 15,700 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after selling 15,700 shares during the quarter. BW Gestao de Investimentos Ltda.'s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $2,471,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of YUM. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 14,795.6% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 769,805 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $121,137,000 after acquiring an additional 764,637 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Yum! Brands in the 1st quarter worth approximately $97,453,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Yum! Brands by 1.4% in the 1st 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 last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in Yum! Brands by 28.5% in the 1st 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new position in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter worth approximately $43,944,000. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,117 shares of the business's stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief executive officer owned 102,893 shares of the company's stock, valued at $15,084,113.80. The trade was a 6.47% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 29,016 shares of company stock worth $4,271,543 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.33% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $162.00 to $160.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective 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. Guggenheim restated a "buy" rating and issued a $167.00 price objective (up previously from $165.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Redburn Atlantic upgraded shares of Yum! Brands from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $145.00 to $177.00 in a research report on Tuesday, June 10th. Finally, Barclays restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $164.00 price objective (down previously from $167.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Tuesday, August 5th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and thirteen have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $161.23.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

YUM opened at $145.36 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $146.97 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $148.15. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $122.13 and a 52 week high of $163.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $40.34 billion, a PE ratio of 28.67, a P/E/G ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 0.73.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.44 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates 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 business had revenue of $1.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.94 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.35 EPS. Yum! Brands's revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 12th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 2.0%. Yum! Brands's payout ratio is 56.02%.

Yum! Brands Company 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.

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