Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. Buys 16,124 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) by 16.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 112,905 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after purchasing an additional 16,124 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd.'s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $14,752,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 59.5% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 531,103 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $69,596,000 after purchasing an additional 198,069 shares in the last quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in Yum! Brands by 4.2% during the 3rd quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 5,689 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $711,000 after buying an additional 229 shares in the last quarter. Adviser Investments LLC lifted its position in Yum! Brands by 13.8% during the 3rd quarter. Adviser Investments LLC now owns 1,710 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $214,000 after buying an additional 207 shares in the last quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System lifted its position in Yum! Brands by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 1,196,411 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $149,480,000 after buying an additional 28,507 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in Yum! Brands by 72.6% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 65,775 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $8,218,000 after buying an additional 27,674 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of Yum! Brands from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $150.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Oppenheimer upgraded shares of Yum! Brands from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $154.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 5th. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a "hold" rating and set a $135.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $141.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 9th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on Yum! Brands from $164.00 to $166.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, February 8th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $145.00.

Yum! Brands Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of YUM stock traded up $0.38 on Thursday, reaching $138.33. The company had a trading volume of 1,424,978 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,930,597. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $115.53 and a 12 month high of $143.24. The company has a 50-day moving average of $136.12 and a 200-day moving average of $129.60. The stock has a market cap of $38.94 billion, a PE ratio of 24.75, a PEG ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 1.10.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The restaurant operator reported $1.26 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.39 by ($0.13). Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 17.76% and a net margin of 22.57%. The firm had revenue of $2.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.11 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.31 EPS. The company's revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.72 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 8th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 21st were given a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 20th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.94%. This is an increase from Yum! Brands's previous quarterly dividend of $0.61. Yum! Brands's dividend payout ratio is 47.94%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,067 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.34, for a total transaction of $963,514.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 175,377 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $23,910,900.18. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,067 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.34, for a total transaction of $963,514.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 175,377 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $23,910,900.18. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP David Eric Russell sold 9,919 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.63, for a total value of $1,285,799.97. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 18,661 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,419,025.43. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 20,742 shares of company stock valued at $2,734,628 in the last quarter. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by 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.