First Trust Advisors LP Raises Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Key Points

• First Trust Advisors LP boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 179.2% in Q3, adding 271,085 shares to hold 422,401 shares valued at about $64.2 million (roughly 0.15% of the company).
• Analysts maintain a consensus rating of Moderate Buy on YUM with a $174.50 consensus price target (13 Buys vs. 8 Holds) and several recent price targets in the $179–$185 range.
• Yum! raised its quarterly dividend to $0.75 (annualized $3.00, yield ~1.9%), and in the most recent quarter reported EPS of $1.73 (missing estimates of $1.76) while revenue grew 6.4% year-over-year to $2.52 billion.

First Trust Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) by 179.2% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 422,401 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after buying an additional 271,085 shares during the quarter. First Trust Advisors LP owned approximately 0.15% of Yum! Brands worth $64,205,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.3% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 695,059 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $105,649,000 after buying an additional 8,888 shares during the last quarter. Amundi grew its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 115.8% in the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 1,311,849 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $197,013,000 after buying an additional 703,891 shares during the last quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama grew its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 19.7% in the 3rd quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 347,395 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $52,804,000 after buying an additional 57,112 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 34.3% during the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,789,728 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $413,382,000 after acquiring an additional 713,167 shares in the last quarter. Finally, National Pension Service lifted its position in Yum! Brands by 2.5% during the third quarter. National Pension Service now owns 430,416 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $65,423,000 after acquiring an additional 10,632 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on YUM shares. Weiss Ratings restated a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and set a $179.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Wednesday, January 7th. Guggenheim reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $180.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Barclays set a $185.00 price objective on Yum! Brands and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Oppenheimer lowered Yum! Brands from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 6th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $174.50.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 242 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $166.02, for a total value of $40,176.84. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 65,297 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $10,840,607.94. This represents a 0.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 1,612 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $164.63, for a total value of $265,383.56. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 14,138 shares of company stock worth $2,289,990 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.33% of the company's stock.

Yum! Brands Trading Down 0.4%

NYSE:YUM opened at $159.28 on Wednesday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $137.33 and a twelve month high of $169.39. The company has a market cap of $44.03 billion, a PE ratio of 28.70, a P/E/G ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.64. The company's 50 day moving average is $158.25 and its two-hundred day moving average is $151.67.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.76 by ($0.03). Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 22.42% and a net margin of 18.98%.The company had revenue of $2.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.45 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.61 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 6th. Investors of record on Friday, February 20th were paid a $0.75 dividend. This is a positive change from Yum! Brands's previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 20th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. Yum! Brands's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 54.05%.

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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