Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Shares Sold by Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH

Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH cut its stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) by 82.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 3,544 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after selling 17,127 shares during the quarter. Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH's holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $475,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. raised its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 436.5% in the 4th quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 279 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 227 shares during the period. Finally, Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 52.1% in the 4th quarter. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. now owns 295 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 101 shares in the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

YUM has been the topic of several analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $130.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the company an "in-line" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $151.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. TD Securities reiterated a "hold" rating and issued a $158.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Cowen reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Sixteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $156.70.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,063 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 15th. The stock was 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 in the company, 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 the SEC website. Also, VP David Eric Russell sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.66, for a total transaction of $793,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 11,960 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,897,573.60. This trade represents a 29.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 62,334 shares of company stock worth $9,734,737 over the last quarter. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 1.8%

Shares of Yum! Brands stock traded down $2.69 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $146.35. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,841,938 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,005,797. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $122.13 and a 1-year high of $163.30. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $149.57 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $142.21. The company has a market cap of $40.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.04, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.77.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates 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 negative return on equity of 20.33% and a net margin of 19.68%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.15 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 6th. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 27th will be given a dividend of $0.71 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 27th. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.94%. Yum! Brands's dividend payout ratio is presently 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.