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

Heritage Investors Management Corp lessened its holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) by 2.7% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor 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 reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. Wayfinding Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the first quarter valued at about $32,000. Financial Gravity Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the first quarter valued at about $38,000. MorganRosel Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the first quarter valued at about $41,000. Finally, Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. lifted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 436.5% in the fourth 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. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

YUM has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $176.00 to $174.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the company an "in-line" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $148.00 to $151.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Redburn Atlantic raised shares of Yum! Brands from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $145.00 to $177.00 in a research report on Tuesday, June 10th. Finally, Oppenheimer reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $185.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Thirteen research 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, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $159.86.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 0.7%

Yum! Brands stock opened at $149.07 on Friday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $122.13 and a 52-week high of $163.30. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $145.80 and a 200-day moving average of $145.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $41.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.70, a PEG ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 0.74.

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, topping 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 analyst estimates of $1.85 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.15 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 27th were given a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.91%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 27th. Yum! Brands's payout ratio is currently 56.57%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,117 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.60, for a total value of $1,043,352.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 102,893 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,084,113.80. This represents a 6.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 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 of the company's stock, valued at $260,231.40. This trade represents a 13.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 14,720 shares of company stock valued at $2,150,965 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.33% of the company's stock.

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.

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