Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC Raises Stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC grew its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) by 29.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 62,335 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after purchasing an additional 14,077 shares during the quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC's holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $8,363,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in YUM. Brighton Jones LLC raised its holdings in Yum! Brands by 8.0% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,861 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $1,055,000 after purchasing an additional 583 shares in the last quarter. Caprock Group LLC grew its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 21.7% in the 4th quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 3,140 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $421,000 after buying an additional 559 shares during the period. Independence Bank of Kentucky grew its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 117.9% in the 4th quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky now owns 5,363 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $720,000 after buying an additional 2,902 shares during the period. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 907.3% in the 4th quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 76,416 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $10,252,000 after buying an additional 68,830 shares during the period. Finally, Greenleaf Trust grew its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 16.3% in the 4th quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 10,767 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $1,445,000 after buying an additional 1,509 shares during the period. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

YUM has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $176.00 to $174.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Guggenheim upped their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $155.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $130.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $151.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, TD Securities restated a "hold" rating and set a $158.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Fifteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $157.30.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,063 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $145.57, for a total transaction of $1,028,160.91. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 157,893 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $22,984,484.01. The trade was a 4.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Erika Burkhardt sold 597 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.07, for a total transaction of $94,964.79. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 64 shares of the company's stock, valued at $10,180.48. This represents a 90.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 26,998 shares of company stock valued at $4,100,443 over the last three months. 0.33% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

NYSE YUM traded up $0.55 on Wednesday, hitting $144.52. 1,079,125 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,014,983. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $147.11 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $142.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $40.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.69, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.74. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $122.13 and a 52-week high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.30 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.29 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $1.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.85 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 19.68% and a negative return on equity of 20.33%. Yum! Brands's quarterly revenue was up 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.15 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 27th will be paid a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.97%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 27th. Yum! Brands's payout ratio is 56.57%.

About Yum! Brands

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.