Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund Lowers Stock Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund cut its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) by 48.0% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,193 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after selling 7,577 shares during the quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund's holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $1,289,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of YUM. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,604,632 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $1,021,194,000 after acquiring an additional 163,462 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in Yum! Brands by 20.4% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,545,872 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $475,714,000 after acquiring an additional 601,361 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter worth approximately $418,692,000. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,521,583 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $338,296,000 after purchasing an additional 24,681 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 4.2% during 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 buying an additional 94,026 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $163.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Redburn Atlantic upgraded shares of Yum! Brands from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price objective for the company from $145.00 to $177.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 10th. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on Yum! Brands from $176.00 to $174.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 7th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $151.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their target price on Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the company an "in-line" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Fourteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $158.24.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

NYSE YUM traded up $1.36 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $142.75. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,608,402 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,001,040. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $122.13 and a one year high of $163.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $39.68 billion, a PE ratio of 28.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.74. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $145.01 and a 200 day moving average of $143.42.

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

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 6th. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 27th were given a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.99%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 27th. Yum! Brands's payout ratio is presently 56.57%.

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 that occurred on Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $145.57, for a total transaction of $1,028,160.91. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 157,893 shares of the company's stock, valued at $22,984,484.01. This represents a 4.28% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 268 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $145.97, for a total value of $39,119.96. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,755 shares in the company, 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. Insiders sold 12,470 shares of company stock valued at $1,821,172 over the last three months. 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.