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

Voya Investment Management LLC reduced its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 69.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm 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.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of YUM. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter worth $33,000. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. increased its stake in Yum! Brands by 52.1% in the fourth quarter. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. now owns 295 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 101 shares during the period. Finally, Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $42,000. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Piper Sandler raised their price target on Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their price target for the company from $140.00 to $135.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $156.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Sixteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $152.62.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:YUM opened at $147.54 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $151.96 and a 200 day simple moving average of $140.48. The company has a market capitalization of $41.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.26, 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.

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. This is an increase from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.92%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is currently 54.41%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Yum! Brands news, 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 $25,560,800.16. The trade was a 16.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 8,638 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.36, for a total transaction of $1,367,913.68. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 2,970 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $470,329.20. This represents a 74.41 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 55,271 shares of company stock valued at $8,706,576. 0.33% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Yum! Brands

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.