Nomura Holdings Inc. Buys New Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Nomura Holdings Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 9,196 shares of the restaurant operator's stock, valued at approximately $1,234,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in YUM. Ritholtz Wealth Management boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 7.0% in the fourth quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 2,236 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $300,000 after acquiring an additional 146 shares during the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 34.1% in the 4th quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 10,623 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $1,425,000 after buying an additional 2,701 shares during the last quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Yum! Brands by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,331 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $1,520,000 after purchasing an additional 460 shares during the period. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 18.4% in the fourth quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 805 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $108,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 9.5% in the fourth quarter. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 148,064 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $19,864,000 after acquiring an additional 12,814 shares during the period. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In other news, VP David Eric Russell sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.66, for a total transaction of $793,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 11,960 shares in the company, valued at $1,897,573.60. This represents a 29.48% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,063 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $145.57, for a total transaction of $1,028,160.91. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 157,893 shares of the company's stock, valued at $22,984,484.01. This trade represents a 4.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 62,334 shares of company stock valued at $9,734,737. Corporate insiders own 0.33% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. Cowen reiterated a "hold" rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $156.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $130.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. 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. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Sixteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $156.70.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Shares of Yum! Brands stock traded down $0.88 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $145.55. 1,926,731 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,005,482. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $149.40 and its 200 day simple moving average is $142.24. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $122.13 and a 52 week high of $163.30. The company has a market cap of $40.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.77.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.29 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $1.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.85 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 20.33% and a net margin of 19.68%. The business's revenue was up 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.15 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 27th will be issued a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 27th. Yum! Brands's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 56.57%.

Yum! Brands 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.