TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. Decreases Stock Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. lessened its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 84.2% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,659 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 8,815 shares during the period. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $249,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.3% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 34,557,612 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $5,120,747,000 after purchasing an additional 448,393 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Yum! Brands by 2.7% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,216,042 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,217,826,000 after purchasing an additional 218,046 shares during the period. Magellan Asset Management Ltd increased its holdings in Yum! Brands by 35.9% during the 2nd quarter. Magellan Asset Management Ltd now owns 2,306,932 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $341,841,000 after purchasing an additional 609,223 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its position in Yum! Brands by 2.6% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 2,098,801 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $330,267,000 after purchasing an additional 53,326 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cantillon Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 13.1% in the 2nd quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC now owns 2,063,179 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $305,722,000 after buying an additional 238,615 shares during the period. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

YUM has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Citigroup upped their target price on Yum! Brands from $156.00 to $158.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, October 20th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $155.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $177.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $163.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price objective on Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $167.38.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Erika Burkhardt sold 1,269 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $149.37, for a total transaction of $189,550.53. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 64 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,559.68. This trade represents a 95.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 24,332 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $149.10, for a total value of $3,627,901.20. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 37,870 shares of company stock worth $5,657,495 over the last 90 days. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

YUM stock opened at $151.01 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $147.14 and a 200-day moving average price of $146.35. 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 $41.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.79, a PEG ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.73.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $1.98 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.96 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 21.01% and a net margin of 18.11%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.37 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast 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 will be paid on Friday, December 12th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.71 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 2nd. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.9%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 55.36%.

Yum! Brands Company 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.