Nuveen Asset Management LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Nuveen Asset Management LLC lessened its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) by 20.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 687,886 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after selling 180,966 shares during the period. Nuveen Asset Management LLC owned about 0.25% of Yum! Brands worth $92,287,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 4.2% in the fourth 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 buying an additional 94,026 shares in the last quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 31.7% during the 4th quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,880,379 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $252,272,000 after acquiring an additional 452,339 shares in the last quarter. DJE Kapital AG acquired a new position in Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter worth about $3,306,000. Forsta AP Fonden lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 5.3% during the 4th quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 110,500 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $14,825,000 after acquiring an additional 5,600 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,677,290 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $225,025,000 after acquiring an additional 44,428 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Yum! Brands news, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 8,638 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.36, for a total value of $1,367,913.68. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 2,970 shares in the company, valued at approximately $470,329.20. The trade was a 74.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,063 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $145.57, for a total value of $1,028,160.91. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 62,334 shares of company stock valued at $9,734,737 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.33% of the company's stock.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of YUM traded down $0.66 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $148.99. 2,158,693 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,000,106. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $122.13 and a twelve month high of $163.30. The company has a market capitalization of $41.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.54, a PEG ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.77. The business's 50-day moving average price is $149.66 and its 200 day moving average price is $142.17.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly 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 company had revenue of $1.79 billion for 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 revenue was up 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.15 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 27th will be given a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.91%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 27th. Yum! Brands's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 56.57%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Guggenheim increased their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $155.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered Yum! Brands from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $140.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Evercore ISI upped their price target on Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on Yum! Brands from $163.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Sixteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $156.70.

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.