Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Has $6.84 Million Stock Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lowered its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) by 19.2% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 43,463 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after selling 10,314 shares during the quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC's holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $6,839,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,355,367 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $315,996,000 after acquiring an additional 94,026 shares during the last quarter. First National Bank Sioux Falls bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the first quarter worth approximately $283,000. Cantillon Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 31.7% during the fourth quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,880,379 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $252,272,000 after acquiring an additional 452,339 shares during the period. DJE Kapital AG bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter worth approximately $3,306,000. Finally, Gotham Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 54.2% during the fourth quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC now owns 140,412 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $18,838,000 after acquiring an additional 49,362 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on YUM shares. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Guggenheim boosted 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, May 5th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on Yum! Brands from $150.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, TD Securities reiterated a "hold" rating and issued a $158.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Fourteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $158.24.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

NYSE YUM opened at $138.98 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $145.10 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $143.35. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $122.13 and a fifty-two week high of $163.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $38.63 billion, a PE ratio of 27.68, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.74.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.30 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.29 by $0.01. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 18.42%. The firm had revenue of $1.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.85 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.15 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 27th were issued a dividend of $0.71 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 27th. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.04%. Yum! Brands's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 56.57%.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 5,139 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.70, for a total transaction of $753,891.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 157,893 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,162,903.10. This represents a 3.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 268 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $145.97, for a total transaction of $39,119.96. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,755 shares of the company's stock, valued at $256,177.35. This trade represents a 13.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 12,470 shares of company stock worth $1,821,172. Corporate 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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