Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Shares Purchased by Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV

Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV raised its holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) by 5.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 39,762 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after acquiring an additional 2,084 shares during the quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV's holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $5,334,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,604,632 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $1,021,194,000 after buying an additional 163,462 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 20.4% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,545,872 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $475,714,000 after acquiring an additional 601,361 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter worth approximately $418,692,000. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,521,583 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $338,296,000 after acquiring an additional 24,681 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in Yum! Brands by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,355,367 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $315,996,000 after purchasing an additional 94,026 shares in the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Yum! Brands news, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 8,638 shares of the 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 transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 2,970 shares of the company's stock, valued at $470,329.20. This trade represents a 74.41 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 30,604 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $159.46, for a total value of $4,880,113.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 160,296 shares in the company, valued at $25,560,800.16. This represents a 16.03 % 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 worth $8,706,576 over the last quarter. 0.33% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

YUM traded down $1.39 on Thursday, reaching $148.09. 1,410,882 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,007,279. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $122.13 and a twelve month high of $163.30. The company's 50 day moving average is $151.45 and its 200-day moving average is $141.28. The company has a market cap of $41.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.37, a PEG ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.77.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 net margin of 19.68% and a negative return on equity of 20.33%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.15 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have issued reports on YUM shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday. Guggenheim increased their target price on Yum! Brands from $155.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. UBS Group boosted their price target on Yum! Brands from $156.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered Yum! Brands from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $140.00 to $135.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $130.00 to $148.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Sixteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $156.70.

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.