UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp Acquires Shares of 1,444 Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 1,444 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $227,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Wayfinding Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the 1st quarter worth approximately $32,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. grew its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 436.5% in the 4th quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 279 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 227 shares in the last quarter. Financial Gravity Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the 1st quarter worth approximately $38,000. LGT Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter worth approximately $41,000. Finally, MorganRosel Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the 1st quarter worth approximately $41,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In other news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 272 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $148.28, for a total transaction of $40,332.16. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,755 shares in the company, valued at approximately $260,231.40. This trade represents a 13.42% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,117 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.60, for a total value of $1,043,352.20. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 102,893 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,084,113.80. This trade represents a 6.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 14,720 shares of company stock worth $2,150,965. 0.33% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on Yum! Brands from $176.00 to $174.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Citigroup lifted their target price on Yum! Brands from $148.00 to $151.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Yum! Brands from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $170.00 to $162.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 25th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Redburn Atlantic raised Yum! Brands from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $145.00 to $177.00 in a report on Tuesday, June 10th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $159.86.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of Yum! Brands stock opened at $145.41 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $145.65 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $146.26. The company has a market capitalization of $40.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.97, a PEG ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.73. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $122.13 and a 1-year high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced its 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. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 18.42%. The firm had revenue of $1.79 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.85 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.15 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 27th were given a dividend of $0.71 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 27th. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.0%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 56.57%.

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.