Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM Stake Reduced by Comerica Bank

Key Points

• Comerica Bank has reduced its stake in Yum! Brands by 12.7%, selling 10,980 shares and now owning 75,300 shares valued at approximately $11.8 million.
• Several institutional investors, including Northern Trust Corp and Lido Advisors LLC, have increased their positions in Yum! Brands during the previous quarter.
• Yum! Brands reported an earnings per share (EPS) of $1.44, missing estimates, and announced a quarterly dividend of $0.71 per share with a yield of 1.9%.

Comerica Bank reduced its stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) by 12.7% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 75,300 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after selling 10,980 shares during the quarter. Comerica Bank's holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $11,849,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in YUM. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position in Yum! Brands by 8.0% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,861 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $1,055,000 after acquiring an additional 583 shares during the period. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC boosted its position in Yum! Brands by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 6,605 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $886,000 after acquiring an additional 71 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in Yum! Brands by 20.4% during the 4th 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 period. Lido Advisors LLC boosted its position in Yum! Brands by 36.7% during the 4th quarter. Lido Advisors LLC now owns 19,417 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $2,605,000 after acquiring an additional 5,213 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Yum! Brands by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 66,562 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $8,930,000 after acquiring an additional 1,369 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on YUM shares. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $164.00 price target on Yum! Brands in a research report on Tuesday, August 5th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on Yum! Brands from $150.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $155.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. TD Cowen cut their price objective on Yum! Brands from $158.00 to $156.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Yum! Brands from $153.00 to $151.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and thirteen have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $161.23.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 12,220 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $148.24, for a total transaction of $1,811,492.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,106 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.84, for a total value of $1,043,445.04. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 102,893 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $15,108,808.12. This represents a 6.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 29,284 shares of company stock valued at $4,310,663. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 0.2%

Shares of NYSE YUM opened at $147.22 on Wednesday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $122.13 and a 12 month high of $163.30. The company has a market cap of $40.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.04, a P/E/G ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 0.73. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $146.37 and a 200-day simple moving average of $148.21.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.44 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.46 by ($0.02). Yum! Brands had a net margin of 18.11% and a negative return on equity of 21.01%. The company had revenue of $1.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.94 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.35 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 12th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 2nd will be issued a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 2nd. Yum! Brands's dividend payout ratio is currently 56.02%.

Yum! Brands 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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