Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. Sells 5,108 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lowered its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) by 6.6% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 72,446 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after selling 5,108 shares during the quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd.'s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $11,400,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter worth $25,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter worth $25,000. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter worth $33,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. boosted its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 227 shares during the period. Finally, Alpine Bank Wealth Management acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the first quarter valued at about $47,000. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Yum! Brands from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $167.00 target price for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 4th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Yum! Brands from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and cut their target price for the company from $170.00 to $162.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 25th. Oppenheimer restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $185.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Guggenheim upped their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $155.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $157.86.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 272 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,755 shares in the company, valued at $260,231.40. The trade was a 13.42% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,063 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 157,893 shares in the company, 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 sold a total of 12,742 shares of company stock valued at $1,861,504 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.33% of the company's stock.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of YUM traded down $0.18 on Friday, hitting $150.00. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,284,289 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,002,705. The company has a market capitalization of $41.69 billion, a PE ratio of 29.88, a PEG ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.74. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $122.13 and a fifty-two week high of $163.30. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $145.63 and a 200 day moving average price of $143.91.

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 analysts' consensus estimates 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 analyst estimates of $1.85 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.15 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 27th were issued a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 27th. Yum! Brands's dividend payout ratio is currently 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.