Carnegie Investment Counsel Raises Stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Carnegie Investment Counsel boosted its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 16.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,216 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 306 shares during the quarter. Carnegie Investment Counsel’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $328,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of YUM. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 8.0% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,861 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,055,000 after buying an additional 583 shares in the last quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 2,273.3% in the first quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 356 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $56,000 after buying an additional 341 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 1.8% in the first quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 13,822 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,175,000 after buying an additional 240 shares in the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 5.1% in the first quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 26,105 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $4,108,000 after buying an additional 1,266 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goodman Advisory Group LLC purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands in the first quarter worth approximately $113,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 2.0%

Shares of YUM stock opened at $143.37 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $147.35 and a 200 day moving average of $146.30. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $122.13 and a 52 week high of $163.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $39.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.28, a PEG ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.72.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.44 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by ($0.02). Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 21.01% and a net margin of 18.11%.The business had revenue of $1.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.94 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.35 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 12th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 2nd were paid a $0.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 2nd. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.0%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 56.02%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on YUM. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $164.00 target price on Yum! Brands in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and issued a $167.00 target price (up previously from $165.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, August 4th. Morgan Stanley set a $165.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. TD Cowen cut their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $158.00 to $156.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, August 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $162.00 to $160.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and thirteen have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $163.14.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 275 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $152.59, for a total value of $41,962.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,755 shares in the company, valued at approximately $267,795.45. This represents a 13.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 12,220 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $148.24, for a total value of $1,811,492.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 29,078 shares of company stock worth $4,304,785. 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.