ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. Acquires 10,282 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 8.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 135,250 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 10,282 shares during the quarter. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $18,896,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 24.0% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,012,969 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $4,022,648,000 after purchasing an additional 5,607,517 shares during the period. Capital World Investors boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 23.7% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 18,121,611 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,512,561,000 after purchasing an additional 3,470,883 shares during the period. Cantillon Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the first quarter worth approximately $200,668,000. Capital International Investors boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 10.2% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 14,669,356 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,033,906,000 after acquiring an additional 1,362,813 shares during the last quarter. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 36.6% during the first quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 2,174,526 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $301,498,000 after acquiring an additional 582,267 shares during the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on YUM shares. TD Cowen lowered shares of Yum! Brands from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $156.00 to $145.00 in a research report on Wednesday. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $150.00 to $154.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $135.00 to $130.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. Evercore ISI downgraded shares of Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to an “inline” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $160.00 to $145.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $137.00 to $144.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $144.56.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of Yum! Brands stock opened at $133.35 on Thursday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $118.28 and a 1 year high of $143.20. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $135.14 and its two-hundred day moving average is $135.27. The stock has a market cap of $37.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.42, a PEG ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 1.08.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The restaurant operator reported $1.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.33 by $0.02. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 21.96% and a negative return on equity of 18.90%. The company had revenue of $1.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.80 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.41 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 27th were issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.01%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 27th. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is 49.08%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Weir Mirian M. Graddick sold 1,309 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.40, for a total value of $179,856.60. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 1,233 shares in the company, valued at approximately $169,414.20. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, Director Weir Mirian M. Graddick sold 1,309 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.40, for a total value of $179,856.60. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 1,233 shares in the company, valued at approximately $169,414.20. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sabir Sami sold 71,051 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.16, for a total transaction of $9,745,355.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 68 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,326.88. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 101,673 shares of company stock worth $13,918,095. Corporate insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

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.