Signal Advisors Wealth LLC Makes New Investment in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Key Points

• Signal Advisors Wealth LLC has made a new investment in Yum! Brands, acquiring 2,049 shares valued at approximately $304,000.
• Insider transactions include CEO Scott Mezvinsky selling 263 shares and Director Weir Mirian M. Graddick selling 2,038 shares, indicating notable insider trading activity.
• Yum! Brands recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.71 per share, yielding about 2.0% annually, with a payout ratio of 56.02%.

Signal Advisors Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 2,049 shares of the restaurant operator's stock, valued at approximately $304,000.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 14,795.6% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 769,805 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $121,137,000 after acquiring an additional 764,637 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Yum! Brands in the first quarter valued at about $97,453,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.4% during 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 period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 28.5% in the first 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 buying an additional 430,511 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI acquired a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the 1st quarter valued at $66,616,000. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 12,220 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $148.24, for a total value of $1,811,492.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,176 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $149.80, for a total value of $1,074,964.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 102,893 shares of the company's stock, valued at $15,413,371.40. The trade was a 6.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 36,192 shares of company stock valued at $5,346,507 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.33% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. TD Cowen reduced their price objective on Yum! Brands from $158.00 to $156.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 5th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $164.00 price objective on Yum! Brands in a report on Tuesday, August 5th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Yum! Brands from $153.00 to $151.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Melius assumed coverage on Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, July 14th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $200.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $170.00 to $165.00 and set an "in-line" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and thirteen have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $161.23.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 0.3%

NYSE:YUM traded up $0.37 on Friday, reaching $145.63. 3,068,584 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,804,876. The business has a fifty day moving average of $146.21 and a 200-day moving average of $147.62. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $122.13 and a 52-week high of $163.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $40.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.73.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results 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). The firm had revenue of $1.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.94 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 21.01% and a net margin of 18.11%.The company's quarterly revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.35 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

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

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.