Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM Holdings Boosted by Dimensional Fund Advisors LP

Key Points

• Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Yum! Brands by 3.7% to 994,735 shares (about $151.2M), and institutional investors now own roughly 82.37% of the company.
• Yum! reported $1.73 EPS (missing estimates by $0.03) and revenue of $2.52B (up 6.4% year-over-year), and raised its quarterly dividend to $0.75 ($3.00 annual, ~1.9% yield).
• Shares trade around $159 with a market cap of $44.03B and a P/E of 28.7; analysts hold a consensus "Moderate Buy" with a $174.50 target, while insiders sold roughly 14,138 shares (~$2.29M) in the past 90 days.

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) by 3.7% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 994,735 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after purchasing an additional 35,267 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP owned approximately 0.36% of Yum! Brands worth $151,222,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of YUM. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.0% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,242,558 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $5,356,869,000 after buying an additional 684,946 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 2.3% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,131,263 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $1,945,791,000 after acquiring an additional 297,641 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Yum! Brands by 2.7% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,216,042 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $1,217,826,000 after acquiring an additional 218,046 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands during the 2nd quarter worth about $602,551,000. Finally, Loomis Sayles & Co. L P grew its stake in Yum! Brands by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 3,844,806 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $569,723,000 after acquiring an additional 40,757 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company's stock.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE YUM opened at $159.28 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $158.25 and a 200 day simple moving average of $151.67. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $137.33 and a 52 week high of $169.39. The stock has a market cap of $44.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.70, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.64.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.73 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.76 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $2.52 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.45 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 18.98% and a negative return on equity of 22.42%. Yum! Brands's revenue was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.61 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 20th were issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 20th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. This is an increase from Yum! Brands's previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. Yum! Brands's payout ratio is 54.05%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Weiss Ratings reiterated a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, December 29th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a "neutral" rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Friday, December 5th. Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Yum! Brands from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 6th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $165.00 to $176.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. Finally, TD Cowen restated a "buy" rating and set a $180.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $174.50.

Insider Activity

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 1,612 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $164.63, for a total transaction of $265,383.56. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Christopher Lee Turner sold 242 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.02, for a total value of $40,176.84. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 65,297 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,840,607.94. This trade represents a 0.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 14,138 shares of company stock worth $2,289,990. 0.33% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Yum! Brands

Yum! Brands, Inc NYSE: YUM is a global quick-service restaurant company that develops, operates and franchises a portfolio of well-known restaurant brands. The company's principal brands are KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, each focused on distinct product categories—KFC on fried chicken and related menu items, Pizza Hut on pizza and complementary offerings, and Taco Bell on Mexican-inspired quick-service food. Yum! is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky and was formed as Tricon Global Restaurants in 1997 when PepsiCo spun off its restaurant businesses, later adopting the Yum! Brands name.

The company's operating model centers on brand development, system growth and franchising; a large portion of its restaurants are operated by independent franchisees, and Yum! generates revenue through franchise royalties and fees in addition to sales from company-operated locations.

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