Voya Investment Management LLC Lowers Stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Voya Investment Management LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) by 69.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 335,843 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after selling 776,012 shares during the quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC owned 0.12% of Yum! Brands worth $45,025,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter valued at $33,000. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 52.1% in the 4th quarter. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. now owns 295 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 101 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at $42,000. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

YUM has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $150.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $165.00 to $163.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $146.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. 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 report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $138.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Seventeen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $154.95.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

YUM stock traded down $2.50 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $147.94. 816,527 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,017,443. The firm has a market capitalization of $41.20 billion, a PE ratio of 28.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.90. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $122.13 and a 52 week high of $163.30. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $151.92 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $140.78.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 firm 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 quarterly revenue was up 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.15 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st were paid a dividend of $0.71 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 21st. This is a boost from Yum! Brands's previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.92%. Yum! Brands's payout ratio is 54.41%.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP David Eric Russell sold 5,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.66, for a total transaction of $793,300.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 11,960 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,897,573.60. This represents a 29.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 30,604 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.46, for a total value of $4,880,113.84. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 160,296 shares in the company, valued at approximately $25,560,800.16. The trade was a 16.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 55,271 shares of company stock valued at $8,706,576. Company insiders own 0.33% 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.