Heritage Investors Management Corp Cuts Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Heritage Investors Management Corp cut its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) by 2.7% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 120,170 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after selling 3,326 shares during the period. Heritage Investors Management Corp's holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $18,910,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC grew its holdings in Yum! Brands by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 6,605 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $886,000 after acquiring an additional 71 shares during the period. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Yum! Brands by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC now owns 9,178 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $1,444,000 after acquiring an additional 72 shares during the period. Lakeshore Capital Group Inc. grew its holdings in Yum! Brands by 2.1% during the 1st quarter. Lakeshore Capital Group Inc. now owns 3,614 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $569,000 after acquiring an additional 74 shares during the period. Mather Group LLC. grew its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 4.5% in the 1st quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 1,908 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $300,000 after buying an additional 82 shares during the period. Finally, Legacy Financial Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Legacy Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 3,923 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $526,000 after buying an additional 88 shares during the period. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of Yum! Brands stock traded down $0.64 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $147.90. The company's stock had a trading volume of 347,907 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,983,668. The stock has a market cap of $41.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.45, a P/E/G ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 0.74. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $122.13 and a one year high of $163.30. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $145.80 and a 200-day moving average price of $145.22.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.29 by $0.01. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 18.42% and a negative return on equity of 20.80%. The company had revenue of $1.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.85 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.15 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. 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 company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 6th. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 27th were given a dividend of $0.71 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 27th. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.92%. Yum! Brands's payout ratio is 56.57%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 272 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,755 shares in the company, valued at $260,231.40. This trade represents a 13.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,117 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.60, for a total transaction 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. This trade represents a 6.47% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 14,720 shares of company stock valued at $2,150,965 in the last three months. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on YUM. Guggenheim lifted their price target on Yum! Brands from $155.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Robert W. Baird cut their price target on Yum! Brands from $176.00 to $174.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Barclays lifted their price target on Yum! Brands from $163.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $150.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Yum! Brands from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $170.00 to $162.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 25th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $159.86.

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.