Rhumbline Advisers Boosts Stock Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Rhumbline Advisers lifted its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) by 3.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 581,547 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after purchasing an additional 21,829 shares during the period. Rhumbline Advisers owned approximately 0.21% of Yum! Brands worth $91,512,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter worth approximately $25,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter valued at $33,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. boosted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 436.5% during the fourth quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 279 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 227 shares during the period. Finally, Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. lifted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 52.1% in the fourth quarter. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. now owns 295 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 101 shares during the period. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In other news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 268 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $145.97, for a total value of $39,119.96. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,755 shares of the company's stock, valued at $256,177.35. This represents a 13.25% 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 5,139 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.70, for a total value of $753,891.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 157,893 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,162,903.10. This trade represents a 3.15% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 17,763 shares of company stock worth $2,637,564 over the last three months. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on YUM. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on Yum! Brands from $176.00 to $174.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 7th. Oppenheimer reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $185.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Citigroup raised their price target on Yum! Brands from $148.00 to $151.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Guggenheim raised their price target on Yum! Brands from $155.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their target price on Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Fifteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $157.30.

Yum! Brands Trading Down 0.9%

Shares of NYSE YUM traded down $1.23 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $142.78. 1,250,864 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,015,352. The company's 50 day moving average price is $146.59 and its 200 day moving average price is $142.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $39.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.74. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $122.13 and a 12 month high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.29 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $1.79 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.15 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 27th will be paid a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.99%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 27th. Yum! Brands's payout ratio is 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.