D.A. Davidson & CO. Has $4.28 Million Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

D.A. Davidson & CO. reduced its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 30,602 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 802 shares during the quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $4,275,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in YUM. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. lifted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 957.1% during the 3rd quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. now owns 222 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 201 shares during the last quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 43.6% during the 2nd quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 270 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 82 shares during the last quarter. Kimelman & Baird LLC bought a new position in Yum! Brands during the 2nd quarter worth $37,000. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Yum! Brands by 3,088.9% during the 2nd quarter. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC now owns 287 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 278 shares during the period. Finally, Horizons Wealth Management bought a new position in Yum! Brands during the 2nd quarter worth $38,000. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on YUM shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Yum! Brands from $137.00 to $144.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Bank of America lowered their price objective on Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Yum! Brands from $150.00 to $154.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. TD Cowen restated a “hold” rating and set a $145.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic lowered Yum! Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $145.94.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of YUM stock opened at $139.33 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $38.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.04, a P/E/G ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 1.10. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $123.70 and a twelve month high of $143.20. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $134.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $134.54.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.37 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.41 by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $1.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.90 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 18.93% and a net margin of 21.13%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.44 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 2nd. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is presently 50.09%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,005 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.43, for a total value of $941,682.15. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 152,634 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,518,588.62. The trade was a 4.39 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In the last three months, insiders have sold 21,069 shares of company stock valued at $2,842,965. 0.31% of the stock is currently 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.