LPL Financial LLC Purchases 11,324 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Key Points

• LPL Financial LLC increased its holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. by 6.1% during the first quarter, owning approximately $31 million worth of stock.
• Institutional investors and hedge funds collectively own 82.37% of Yum! Brands' stock, indicating significant institutional interest.
• Yum! Brands reported a quarterly earnings per share (EPS) of $1.30, surpassing the analysts' consensus estimate by $0.01.

LPL Financial LLC boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) by 6.1% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 197,000 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after acquiring an additional 11,324 shares during the quarter. LPL Financial LLC owned about 0.07% of Yum! Brands worth $31,000,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in Yum! Brands by 20.4% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,545,872 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $475,714,000 after buying an additional 601,361 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in Yum! Brands by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,521,583 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $338,296,000 after purchasing an additional 24,681 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 12.0% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,284,171 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $306,444,000 after purchasing an additional 244,264 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 14.5% in the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 2,045,475 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $274,421,000 after purchasing an additional 258,369 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc increased its position in Yum! Brands by 1.4% during the 1st quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,954,145 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $307,504,000 after purchasing an additional 27,355 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 272 shares of Yum! Brands 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 sale, 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,117 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.60, for a total transaction of $1,043,352.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 102,893 shares of the company's stock, valued at $15,084,113.80. This trade represents a 6.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 14,720 shares of company stock worth $2,150,965 in the last quarter. 0.33% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Melius started coverage on Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, July 14th. They set a "buy" rating and a $200.00 target price on the stock. Redburn Atlantic upgraded shares of Yum! Brands from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their target price for the company from $145.00 to $177.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 10th. Oppenheimer restated an "outperform" rating and set a $185.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Yum! Brands from $163.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $159.95.

Yum! Brands Trading Up 1.4%

NYSE:YUM traded up $1.98 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $147.34. 3,349,890 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,136,625. The firm has a market cap of $40.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.35, a PEG ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.73. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $145.65 and a 200 day moving average price of $146.54. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $122.13 and a fifty-two week high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 27th were issued a $0.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 27th. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. Yum! Brands's dividend payout ratio is currently 56.57%.

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.