Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. Has $7.10 Million Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) by 5,746.0% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 45,131 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after purchasing an additional 44,359 shares during the quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd.'s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $7,102,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. IFM Investors Pty Ltd lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 6.4% during the 1st quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 57,039 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $8,976,000 after buying an additional 3,407 shares during the period. Davidson Trust Co. bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the 1st quarter worth approximately $425,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.9% during the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 353,103 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $55,564,000 after buying an additional 6,673 shares during the period. Mutual Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 12.3% during the 1st quarter. Mutual Advisors LLC now owns 3,223 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $475,000 after buying an additional 353 shares during the period. Finally, ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 3.8% during the 1st quarter. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 153,657 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $24,179,000 after buying an additional 5,593 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,063 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $145.57, for a total value of $1,028,160.91. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 157,893 shares in the company, valued at $22,984,484.01. The trade was a 4.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 272 shares of the company'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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,755 shares in the company, valued at approximately $260,231.40. This represents a 13.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 12,742 shares of company stock worth $1,861,504. 0.33% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have issued reports on YUM. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Yum! Brands from $148.00 to $151.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. TD Securities reiterated a "hold" rating and issued a $158.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Yum! Brands from $163.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Yum! Brands from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and cut their price objective for the company from $170.00 to $162.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 25th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic raised Yum! Brands from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their price target for the company from $145.00 to $177.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 10th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $157.86.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

NYSE YUM traded up $0.22 on Monday, reaching $150.22. The company had a trading volume of 1,779,918 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,003,914. The company's fifty day moving average is $145.68 and its 200-day moving average is $144.20. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $122.13 and a 1-year high of $163.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $41.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.74.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.30 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.29 by $0.01. The company 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 quarterly revenue was up 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.15 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 6th. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 27th were issued a dividend of $0.71 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 27th. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.89%. Yum! Brands's payout ratio is 56.57%.

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.