Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Takes Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 103,902 shares of the restaurant operator's stock, valued at approximately $16,610,000.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Steph & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 107.5% during the 1st quarter. Steph & Co. now owns 166 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 86 shares during the last quarter. Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the second quarter worth approximately $27,000. Kelleher Financial Advisors purchased a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the second quarter valued at approximately $29,000. MV Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Finally, Manning & Napier Advisors LLC bought a new position in Yum! Brands during the first quarter valued at approximately $28,000. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on YUM. Citigroup increased their price target on Yum! Brands from $175.00 to $178.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Sunday, July 12th. Weiss Ratings lowered Yum! Brands from a "buy (b)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 28th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price objective on Yum! Brands from $165.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley raised Yum! Brands from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and increased their target price for the company from $180.00 to $185.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Evercore reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Tuesday, June 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $174.65.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In other news, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 3,494 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.00, for a total transaction of $552,052.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 3 shares of the company's stock, valued at $474. The trade was a 99.91% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 261 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $153.15, for a total value of $39,972.15. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 63,771 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,766,528.65. The trade was a 0.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 19,043 shares of company stock valued at $2,978,180 in the last ninety days. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Yum! Brands Trading Up 2.2%

YUM opened at $154.08 on Friday. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $153.48 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $155.81. The company has a market capitalization of $42.05 billion, a PE ratio of 19.38, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 0.55. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $137.33 and a 1-year high of $170.14.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.58 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $2.17 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.18 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 25.42% and a negative return on equity of 24.57%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 12.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.44 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 6.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 9th will be given a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 9th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. Yum! Brands's payout ratio is 37.74%.

Yum! Brands declared that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Tuesday, June 16th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the restaurant operator to repurchase up to 9.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Yum! Brands Profile

Yum! Brands, Inc NYSE: YUM is a global quick-service restaurant company that develops, operates and franchises a portfolio of well-known restaurant brands. The company's principal brands are KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, each focused on distinct product categories—KFC on fried chicken and related menu items, Pizza Hut on pizza and complementary offerings, and Taco Bell on Mexican-inspired quick-service food. Yum! is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky and was formed as Tricon Global Restaurants in 1997 when PepsiCo spun off its restaurant businesses, later adopting the Yum! Brands name.

The company's operating model centers on brand development, system growth and franchising; a large portion of its restaurants are operated by independent franchisees, and Yum! generates revenue through franchise royalties and fees in addition to sales from company-operated locations.

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