Centerline Wealth Advisors LLC Buys New Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Centerline Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 1,640 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $258,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in YUM. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Yum! Brands by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,604,632 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,021,194,000 after acquiring an additional 163,462 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Yum! Brands by 20.4% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,545,872 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $475,714,000 after acquiring an additional 601,361 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter worth approximately $418,692,000. FMR LLC increased its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 24,681 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in Yum! Brands by 12.0% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,284,171 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $306,444,000 after acquiring an additional 244,264 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on YUM. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Yum! Brands from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $167.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, June 4th. Guggenheim boosted their target price on Yum! Brands from $155.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Redburn Atlantic raised Yum! Brands from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $145.00 to $177.00 in a research report on Tuesday, June 10th. Cowen reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $185.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $157.86.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 1.0%

Shares of NYSE YUM opened at $148.51 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $145.24 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $143.56. The firm has a market cap of $41.28 billion, a PE ratio of 29.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.74. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $122.13 and a twelve month high of $163.30.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.29 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $1.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.85 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 18.42%. Yum! Brands’s revenue was up 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.15 EPS. On average, research analysts expect 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 was paid on Friday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 27th were given a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.91%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 27th. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 56.57%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 5,139 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $146.70, for a total value of $753,891.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 157,893 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,162,903.10. The trade was a 3.15% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 268 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $145.97, for a total value of $39,119.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,755 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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 a total of 12,470 shares of company stock valued at $1,821,172 in the last ninety days. Corporate 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.