Sowell Financial Services LLC Invests $939,000 in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Sowell Financial Services LLC purchased a new position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 5,970 shares of the restaurant operator's stock, valued at approximately $939,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new position in Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter valued at $33,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. lifted its position in 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 purchasing an additional 227 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LGT Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter valued at $41,000. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 268 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $145.97, for a total transaction of $39,119.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,755 shares in the company, valued at $256,177.35. The trade was a 13.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,063 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $145.57, for a total value of $1,028,160.91. Following the transaction, 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 12,470 shares of company stock worth $1,821,172 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.33% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

YUM has been the topic of several analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Redburn Atlantic upgraded Yum! Brands from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their target price for the company 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 report on Wednesday, June 4th. 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, Barclays raised their price target on Yum! Brands from $163.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Fourteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $158.24.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of NYSE YUM opened at $138.38 on Thursday. The business's 50 day moving average is $145.37 and its two-hundred day moving average is $143.31. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $122.13 and a 1-year high of $163.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $38.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.56, a PEG ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.74.

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 for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.29 by $0.01. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 18.42%. The company had revenue of $1.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.85 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.15 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 27th were given a dividend of $0.71 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 27th. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.05%. Yum! Brands's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.

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