Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Shares Acquired by Royal Bank of Canada

Royal Bank of Canada increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) by 14.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 680,937 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after acquiring an additional 83,767 shares during the quarter. Royal Bank of Canada owned approximately 0.24% of Yum! Brands worth $91,354,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Yum! Brands by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,604,632 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $1,021,194,000 after acquiring an additional 163,462 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in Yum! Brands by 20.4% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,545,872 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $475,714,000 after acquiring an additional 601,361 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter worth approximately $418,692,000. FMR LLC boosted its position in Yum! Brands by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,521,583 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $338,296,000 after acquiring an additional 24,681 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in Yum! Brands by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,355,367 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $315,996,000 after acquiring an additional 94,026 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company's stock.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Yum! Brands stock opened at $149.75 on Tuesday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $122.13 and a 12-month high of $163.30. The company has a market capitalization of $41.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.77. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $149.66 and its 200 day moving average price is $142.17.

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

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 27th will be given a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 27th. Yum! Brands's payout ratio is currently 56.57%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Barclays upped their price objective on Yum! Brands from $163.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded Yum! Brands from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $140.00 to $135.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Cowen restated a "hold" rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $151.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Oppenheimer restated an "outperform" rating and set a $185.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, April 28th. Sixteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $156.70.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,063 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Erika Burkhardt sold 597 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $159.07, for a total transaction of $94,964.79. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 64 shares of the company's stock, valued at $10,180.48. The trade was a 90.32% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 62,334 shares of company stock valued at $9,734,737. Insiders own 0.33% of the company's stock.

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.

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