DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale Sells 21,143 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale trimmed its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) by 3.3% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 614,212 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after selling 21,143 shares during the quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale owned approximately 0.22% of Yum! Brands worth $95,278,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in YUM. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter worth about $25,000. Wayfinding Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands during the first quarter worth $32,000. MorganRosel Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the first quarter valued at $41,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 436.5% in the fourth quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 279 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 227 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alpine Bank Wealth Management bought a new stake in Yum! Brands during the 1st quarter worth about $47,000. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 272 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $148.28, for a total value of $40,332.16. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,755 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $260,231.40. This trade represents a 13.42% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, 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 transaction of $1,028,160.91. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 157,893 shares of the company's stock, valued at $22,984,484.01. The trade was a 4.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 12,742 shares of company stock worth $1,861,504 over the last 90 days. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. TD Securities reiterated a "hold" rating and set a $158.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Guggenheim raised their price objective on Yum! Brands from $155.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Oppenheimer restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $185.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Redburn Atlantic upgraded Yum! Brands from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $145.00 to $177.00 in a research report on Tuesday, June 10th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Yum! Brands from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and dropped their target price for the company from $170.00 to $162.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 25th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $157.86.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:YUM traded up $1.01 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $151.86. The company's stock had a trading volume of 375,681 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,167,535. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $122.13 and a fifty-two week high of $163.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $42.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.30, a PEG ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.74. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $145.79 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $144.41.

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

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 27th were paid a dividend of $0.71 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 27th. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.87%. Yum! Brands's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 56.57%.

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.