King Luther Capital Management Corp Sells 7,962 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Key Points

• King Luther Capital Management cut its Yum! Brands stake by 51.7% in the fourth quarter, selling 7,962 shares and ending with 7,449 shares valued at about $1.13 million.
• Yum! Brands executives also sold shares, including CEO Sean Tresvant’s 3,000-share sale and CEO Christopher Lee Turner’s 250-share sale, bringing total insider sales over the last three months to 5,364 shares.
• The company beat quarterly expectations with EPS of $1.50 versus $1.39 expected and revenue of $2.06 billion, while also announcing a $0.75 quarterly dividend payable June 12.

King Luther Capital Management Corp trimmed its stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) by 51.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 7,449 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after selling 7,962 shares during the quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp's holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $1,127,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 8.0% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,861 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $1,055,000 after buying an additional 583 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 124.5% during the second quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 151,316 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $22,422,000 after buying an additional 83,916 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 10.0% during the second quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 117,824 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $17,447,000 after buying an additional 10,755 shares in the last quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina lifted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.0% during the second quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 130,205 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $19,294,000 after buying an additional 1,256 shares in the last quarter. Finally, HUB Investment Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 59.1% during the second quarter. HUB Investment Partners LLC now owns 2,319 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $344,000 after buying an additional 861 shares in the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Sean Tresvant sold 3,000 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.68, for a total value of $464,040.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 3,140 shares in the company, valued at $485,695.20. The trade was a 48.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 250 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.48, for a total value of $40,120.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 64,552 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,359,304.96. This represents a 0.39% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last three months, insiders have sold 5,364 shares of company stock worth $827,837. Insiders own 0.14% of the company's stock.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 1.4%

YUM stock opened at $147.96 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $40.78 billion, a PE ratio of 23.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 0.61. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $156.29 and a 200 day simple moving average of $155.63. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $137.33 and a 52 week high of $169.39.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The restaurant operator reported $1.50 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.39 by $0.11. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 23.51% and a net margin of 20.48%.The business had revenue of $2.06 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.04 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.30 earnings per share. Yum! Brands's revenue for the quarter was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 6.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 27th will be given a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 27th. Yum! Brands's payout ratio is currently 48.39%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

YUM has been the subject of a number of research reports. TD Cowen dropped their target price on Yum! Brands from $186.00 to $180.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. UBS Group reissued a "buy" rating and set a $180.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. BMO Capital Markets reissued a "market perform" rating and set a $168.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reissued a "sector perform" rating and set a $165.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, April 20th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $175.89.

About Yum! Brands

Yum! Brands, Inc NYSE: YUM is a global quick-service restaurant company that develops, operates and franchises a portfolio of well-known restaurant brands. The company's principal brands are KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, each focused on distinct product categories—KFC on fried chicken and related menu items, Pizza Hut on pizza and complementary offerings, and Taco Bell on Mexican-inspired quick-service food. Yum! is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky and was formed as Tricon Global Restaurants in 1997 when PepsiCo spun off its restaurant businesses, later adopting the Yum! Brands name.

The company's operating model centers on brand development, system growth and franchising; a large portion of its restaurants are operated by independent franchisees, and Yum! generates revenue through franchise royalties and fees in addition to sales from company-operated locations.

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