Third View Private Wealth LLC Takes $2.29 Million Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Key Points

• Third View Private Wealth LLC initiated a new stake in Yum! Brands, acquiring 15,123 shares in Q4 valued at about $2.29 million.
• Company insiders have been net sellers recently: CEO Aaron Powell sold 12,000 shares for roughly $1.94 million (a 45% reduction in his holdings), and insiders sold 14,138 shares (~$2.29 million) over the past three months.
• Yum! raised its quarterly dividend to $0.75 (annualized $3.00, ~1.9% yield); the company also missed quarterly EPS by $0.03 while reporting 6.4% revenue growth, and analysts maintain a consensus "Moderate Buy" with an average target of $174.53.

Third View Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 15,123 shares of the restaurant operator's stock, valued at approximately $2,288,000.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of YUM. Salomon & Ludwin LLC boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 679.2% in the third quarter. Salomon & Ludwin LLC now owns 187 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 163 shares during the period. Wiser Advisor Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the third quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Community Bank N.A. bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the third quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 81.7% in the third quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 198 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 89 shares during the period. Finally, CNB Bank boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 833.3% in the third quarter. CNB Bank now owns 224 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the period. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Aaron Powell sold 12,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $161.44, for a total value of $1,937,280.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 14,650 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,365,096. The trade was a 45.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 284 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.02, for a total transaction of $47,149.68. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 14,138 shares of company stock valued at $2,289,990 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.33% of the company's stock.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of Yum! Brands stock opened at $161.16 on Tuesday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $137.33 and a 1 year high of $169.39. The firm has a market cap of $44.51 billion, a PE ratio of 29.04, a PEG ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.66. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $159.99 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $153.54.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.73 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.76 by ($0.03). Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 22.42% and a net margin of 18.98%.The business had revenue of $2.52 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.45 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.61 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 20th were paid a $0.75 dividend. This is a boost from Yum! Brands's previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 20th. Yum! Brands's payout ratio is presently 54.05%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have issued reports on YUM. Barclays set a $185.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. UBS Group reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $180.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated a "positive" rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated an "overweight" rating and set a $179.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Wednesday, January 7th. Finally, Evercore reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $190.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $174.53.

Yum! Brands Profile

Yum! Brands, Inc NYSE: YUM is a global quick-service restaurant company that develops, operates and franchises a portfolio of well-known restaurant brands. The company's principal brands are KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, each focused on distinct product categories—KFC on fried chicken and related menu items, Pizza Hut on pizza and complementary offerings, and Taco Bell on Mexican-inspired quick-service food. Yum! is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky and was formed as Tricon Global Restaurants in 1997 when PepsiCo spun off its restaurant businesses, later adopting the Yum! Brands name.

The company's operating model centers on brand development, system growth and franchising; a large portion of its restaurants are operated by independent franchisees, and Yum! generates revenue through franchise royalties and fees in addition to sales from company-operated locations.

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