Cerity Partners LLC Buys 28,112 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Cerity Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) by 49.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 84,609 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after buying an additional 28,112 shares during the quarter. Cerity Partners LLC's holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $11,054,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of YUM. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter valued at $315,239,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 75,766.0% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,640,982 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $210,177,000 after purchasing an additional 1,638,819 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 121.8% in the 3rd quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 1,819,809 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $227,367,000 after purchasing an additional 999,443 shares during the period. Capital World Investors lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 19.6% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 5,507,237 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $652,773,000 after purchasing an additional 901,181 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 27.3% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,257,809 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $417,260,000 after purchasing an additional 698,493 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company's stock.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Yum! Brands stock traded down $0.13 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $137.67. 2,910,180 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,945,205. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $115.53 and a 52 week high of $143.24. The firm has a market cap of $38.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.63, a P/E/G ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.10. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $136.53 and its 200 day simple moving average is $129.88.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The restaurant operator reported $1.26 EPS 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 business had revenue of $2.04 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.11 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.31 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 8th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 21st were issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 20th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.95%. This is a boost from Yum! Brands's previous quarterly dividend of $0.61. Yum! Brands's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.94%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

YUM has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $133.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. Guggenheim upped their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of Yum! Brands from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $150.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Stifel Nicolaus restated a "hold" rating and issued a $135.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Finally, TD Cowen reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $160.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Ten 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.com, Yum! Brands presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $145.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,067 shares of the business'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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 175,377 shares in the company, valued at $23,910,900.18. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,067 shares of the business'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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 175,377 shares in the company, valued at $23,910,900.18. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP David Eric Russell sold 9,919 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.63, for a total value of $1,285,799.97. Following the sale, the vice president now 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. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 20,742 shares of company stock worth $2,734,628. Company insiders own 0.31% of the company's stock.

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.