Janus Henderson Group PLC Decreases Stock Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Janus Henderson Group PLC decreased its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 41.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 38,022 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 26,998 shares during the quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $5,101,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in YUM. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter worth $25,000. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter valued at about $33,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. grew its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 436.5% during the fourth quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 279 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 227 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. grew its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 52.1% during 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 in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently commented on YUM shares. Barclays increased their price target on Yum! Brands from $163.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $185.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, April 28th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $156.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Guggenheim upped their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $155.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Sixteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $156.70.

Yum! Brands Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of Yum! Brands stock opened at $147.74 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $41.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.30, a PEG ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.77. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $122.13 and a twelve month high of $163.30. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $149.76 and its 200-day simple moving average is $142.05.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.30 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.29 by $0.01. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 20.33% and a net margin of 19.68%. The firm had revenue of $1.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.85 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.15 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 27th will be paid a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.92%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 27th. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is 56.57%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In related news, insider Erika Burkhardt sold 597 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $159.07, for a total value of $94,964.79. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 64 shares in the company, valued at $10,180.48. This trade represents a 90.32% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 30,604 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was 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 owns 160,296 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,560,800.16. This trade represents a 16.03% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 62,334 shares of company stock valued at $9,734,737 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.33% 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.