Perbak Capital Partners LLP Reduces Stock Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Key Points

• Perbak Capital Partners LLP significantly reduced its stake in Yum! Brands by 88.3%, now holding only 1,876 shares after selling 14,143 shares, with a total value of $295,000.
• Institutional investors, including Vanguard Group Inc. and Price T Rowe Associates Inc., have increased their holdings in Yum! Brands, indicating strong interest from large investors.
• Yum! Brands' CEO recently sold shares worth over $1 million, which has contributed to a decline in insider ownership by a notable percentage.

Perbak Capital Partners LLP reduced its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) by 88.3% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,876 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after selling 14,143 shares during the period. Perbak Capital Partners LLP's holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $295,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Yum! Brands by 1.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 34,109,219 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $5,367,427,000 after purchasing an additional 483,918 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 14.5% during the fourth 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 worth $274,421,000 after buying an additional 258,369 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc increased its stake 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 buying an additional 27,355 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 28.5% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,940,044 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $305,286,000 after purchasing an additional 430,511 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Yum! Brands by 1.4% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,700,298 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $267,559,000 after acquiring an additional 23,008 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on YUM. Evercore ISI reduced their target price on Yum! Brands from $170.00 to $165.00 and set an "in-line" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $162.00 to $160.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Redburn Atlantic raised Yum! Brands from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their target price for the stock from $145.00 to $177.00 in a research report on Tuesday, June 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Yum! Brands from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $167.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 4th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein set a $164.00 target price on Yum! Brands in a research report on Tuesday, August 5th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and thirteen have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $161.23.

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,117 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 15th. The shares were 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 of the company's stock, valued at $15,084,113.80. This represents a 6.47% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 272 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $148.28, for a total value of $40,332.16. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,755 shares in the company, valued at $260,231.40. The trade was a 13.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 29,016 shares of company stock worth $4,271,543. Company insiders own 0.33% of the company's stock.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

NYSE YUM opened at $145.36 on Wednesday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $122.13 and a 52-week high of $163.30. The company has a fifty day moving average of $146.97 and a 200-day moving average of $148.15. The company has a market capitalization of $40.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.67, a P/E/G ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 0.73.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.46 by ($0.02). Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 21.01% and a net margin of 18.11%.The firm had revenue of $1.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.94 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.35 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 12th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 2nd will be paid a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 2nd. Yum! Brands's payout ratio is presently 56.02%.

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.

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