Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC Reduces Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC cut its holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) by 55.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,285 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after selling 7,864 shares during the period. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC's holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $843,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of YUM. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter worth $25,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter worth about $25,000. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter valued at about $33,000. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 52.1% during 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the third quarter worth about $42,000. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

YUM has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $151.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday. Oppenheimer reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $185.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Finally, TD Securities reaffirmed a "hold" rating and issued a $158.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Sixteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $156.70.

Yum! Brands Trading Down 1.5 %

Shares of YUM stock traded down $2.20 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $146.94. 1,118,194 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,007,636. The firm has a market cap of $40.92 billion, a PE ratio of 28.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.77. The company's 50 day moving average is $151.79 and its two-hundred day moving average is $141.09. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $122.13 and a 1 year high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.30 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.29 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $1.79 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.85 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 20.33% and a net margin of 19.68%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.15 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st were paid a $0.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.93%. This is a boost from Yum! Brands's previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. Yum! Brands's payout ratio is currently 56.57%.

Insider Activity

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 30,604 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.46, for a total transaction of $4,880,113.84. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 160,296 shares in the company, valued at approximately $25,560,800.16. This represents a 16.03 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 8,638 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.36, for a total transaction of $1,367,913.68. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 2,970 shares of the company's stock, valued at $470,329.20. This represents a 74.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 55,271 shares of company stock valued at $8,706,576 over the last ninety days. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.