Obermeyer Wealth Partners Buys Shares of 1,691 Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Obermeyer Wealth Partners purchased a new position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 1,691 shares of the restaurant operator's stock, valued at approximately $266,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Yum! Brands by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,604,632 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $1,021,194,000 after buying an additional 163,462 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 20.4% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,545,872 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $475,714,000 after acquiring an additional 601,361 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter valued at about $418,692,000. FMR LLC grew its stake in Yum! Brands by 1.0% during the 4th 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, Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in Yum! Brands by 12.0% during 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 last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 272 shares of the company'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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,755 shares of the company's stock, valued at $260,231.40. This represents a 13.42% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,117 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $146.60, for a total value of $1,043,352.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 102,893 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,084,113.80. The trade was a 6.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 14,720 shares of company stock worth $2,150,965. Insiders own 0.33% of the company's stock.

Yum! Brands Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of YUM traded up $0.96 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $146.79. The stock had a trading volume of 1,152,517 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,674,857. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $122.13 and a fifty-two week high of $163.30. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $145.85 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $145.70. The firm has a market cap of $40.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.74.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results 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 company had revenue of $1.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.85 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.15 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 27th were given a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.93%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 27th. Yum! Brands's payout ratio is currently 56.57%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

YUM has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Piper Sandler increased their target price on Yum! Brands from $150.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Yum! Brands from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $167.00 price target on the stock in a report on Wednesday, June 4th. Melius started coverage on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, July 14th. They set a "buy" rating and a $200.00 price objective on the stock. Oppenheimer reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $185.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on shares of 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 ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $159.86.

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.