Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Shares Sold by Cullen Investment Group LTD.

Cullen Investment Group LTD. trimmed its holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 10.0% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 1,798 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 200 shares during the period. Cullen Investment Group LTD.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $241,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at about $29,000. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 957.1% during the third quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. now owns 222 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 201 shares in the last quarter. Kimelman & Baird LLC purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands during the second quarter valued at about $37,000. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands during the second quarter valued at about $39,000. Finally, Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands during the third quarter valued at about $42,000. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on YUM. Argus raised shares of Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 31st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $141.00 price objective (down from $153.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Loop Capital reduced their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $143.00 to $140.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Yum! Brands has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $146.24.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

NYSE:YUM opened at $124.58 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $134.47 and its 200 day moving average price is $133.74. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $122.13 and a 52 week high of $143.20. The company has a market capitalization of $34.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.29, a P/E/G ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 1.11.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced its quarterly 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). Yum! Brands had a net margin of 21.13% and a negative return on equity of 18.93%. The company had revenue of $1.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.90 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.44 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.15%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 50.09%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,059 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.94, for a total value of $959,600.46. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 149,385 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,307,396.90. This trade represents a 4.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate 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.