Key Financial Inc Purchases 2,560 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Key Financial Inc grew its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 71.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,160 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,560 shares during the quarter. Key Financial Inc’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $805,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of YUM. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 59.5% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 531,103 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $69,596,000 after buying an additional 198,069 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 16.7% during the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 112,905 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $14,752,000 after buying an additional 16,124 shares during the period. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of 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 during the period. Sapient Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter worth approximately $381,000. Finally, Adviser Investments LLC lifted its position in shares of 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 during the period. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

YUM has been the subject of several research analyst reports. TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $160.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $135.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Argus reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Wells Fargo & Company cut Yum! Brands from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $150.00 to $135.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on Yum! Brands from $146.00 to $144.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $145.00.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of Yum! Brands stock traded down $0.17 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $137.83. 1,483,649 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,939,037. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $115.53 and a twelve month high of $143.24. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $136.75 and a 200-day moving average price of $129.97. The firm has a market capitalization of $38.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.69, a P/E/G ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 1.10.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The restaurant operator reported $1.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by ($0.13). Yum! Brands had a net margin of 22.57% and a negative return on equity of 17.76%. The business had revenue of $2.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.11 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.31 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

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

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In related news, VP David Eric Russell sold 9,919 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.63, for a total transaction 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, VP David Eric Russell sold 9,919 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.63, for a total transaction 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,067 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.34, for a total value of $963,514.78. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 175,377 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,910,900.18. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 24,064 shares of company stock worth $3,228,698. 0.31% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.