First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. Sells 246 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. trimmed its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 4.2% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 5,604 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 246 shares during the quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $882,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in YUM. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,604,632 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,021,194,000 after buying an additional 163,462 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in Yum! Brands by 20.4% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,545,872 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $475,714,000 after purchasing an additional 601,361 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter worth about $418,692,000. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,521,583 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $338,296,000 after purchasing an additional 24,681 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,355,367 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $315,996,000 after purchasing an additional 94,026 shares during the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $151.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Citigroup lifted their price target on Yum! Brands from $148.00 to $151.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on Yum! Brands from $150.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, May 5th. Fourteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $158.24.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Shares of Yum! Brands stock opened at $143.85 on Wednesday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $145.66 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $143.21. The stock has a market capitalization of $39.98 billion, a PE ratio of 27.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.74. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $122.13 and a 52-week high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.29 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $1.79 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.85 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 19.68% and a negative return on equity of 20.33%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.15 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 27th were paid a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.97%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 27th. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 56.57%.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 5,139 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.70, for a total value of $753,891.30. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 157,893 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,162,903.10. This trade represents a 3.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 268 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $145.97, for a total value of $39,119.96. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,755 shares in the company, valued at $256,177.35. The trade was a 13.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 17,763 shares of company stock worth $2,637,564 over the last quarter. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by 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.