Cypress Asset Management Inc. TX Takes $1.83 Million Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Cypress Asset Management Inc. TX acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 13,653 shares of the restaurant operator's stock, valued at approximately $1,832,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in YUM. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC bought a new position in Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter worth about $33,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 436.5% in the 4th quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 279 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 227 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 52.1% during the fourth quarter. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. now owns 295 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 101 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company's stock.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

NYSE YUM traded down $0.10 during trading on Friday, reaching $143.95. The company's stock had a trading volume of 717,867 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,006,001. The firm has a market cap of $40.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.59, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.77. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $122.13 and a twelve month high of $163.30. The business's fifty day moving average price is $147.90 and its 200-day moving average price is $142.62.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.29 by $0.01. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 20.33% and a net margin of 19.68%. The firm had revenue of $1.79 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.85 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.15 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 6th. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 27th will be issued a $0.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 27th. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.97%. Yum! Brands's dividend payout ratio is presently 56.57%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 30,604 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $159.46, for a total transaction of $4,880,113.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 160,296 shares in the company, valued at approximately $25,560,800.16. The trade was a 16.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 8,638 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.36, for a total value of $1,367,913.68. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 2,970 shares in the company, valued at $470,329.20. The trade was a 74.41% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 62,334 shares of company stock valued at $9,734,737 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.33% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently commented on YUM. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. TD Securities reaffirmed a "hold" rating and set a $158.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Barclays raised their price objective on Yum! Brands from $163.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $176.00 to $174.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Sixteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $156.70.

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.