Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Shares Sold by KBC Group NV

KBC Group NV trimmed its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) by 10.5% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 144,183 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after selling 16,951 shares during the quarter. KBC Group NV owned 0.05% of Yum! Brands worth $22,688,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Goodman Advisory Group LLC bought a new position in Yum! Brands in the 1st quarter valued at $113,000. Centerline Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the first quarter valued at $258,000. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund grew its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 55.3% in the first quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 98,157 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $15,446,000 after purchasing an additional 34,932 shares during the last quarter. PDS Planning Inc increased its stake in Yum! Brands by 20.0% in the 1st quarter. PDS Planning Inc now owns 1,918 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $302,000 after buying an additional 320 shares during the period. Finally, Cottonwood Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Yum! Brands during the 1st quarter valued at about $203,000. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have commented on YUM. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Yum! Brands from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $170.00 to $162.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Yum! Brands from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $167.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 4th. Oppenheimer reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $185.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Barclays raised 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. Thirteen investment 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.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $157.86.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

YUM stock traded down $0.18 during trading on Friday, reaching $150.00. The company had a trading volume of 1,284,289 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,002,705. The company has a market cap of $41.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.74. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $122.13 and a twelve month high of $163.30. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $145.63 and a 200-day simple moving average of $143.91.

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 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 business had revenue of $1.79 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.85 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.15 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

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

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In other news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 272 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $148.28, for a total value of $40,332.16. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,063 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $145.57, for a total value of $1,028,160.91. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 157,893 shares of the company's stock, valued at $22,984,484.01. This trade represents a 4.28% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 12,742 shares of company stock worth $1,861,504 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.33% of the company's stock.

About Yum! Brands

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.