Wellington Management Group LLP Buys 4,317,526 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Posted by Brian Himes on Aug 30th, 2026

Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM – Free Report) by 1,373.2% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 4,631,940 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 4,317,526 shares during the quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $740,462,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Harrell Investment Partners LLC raised its stake in Yum! Brands by 1.5% during the second quarter. Harrell Investment Partners LLC now owns 4,235 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $677,000 after buying an additional 62 shares during the last quarter. Econ Financial Services Corp increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 0.4% during the first quarter. Econ Financial Services Corp now owns 15,536 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,416,000 after acquiring an additional 63 shares in the last quarter. Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC now owns 3,292 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $498,000 after acquiring an additional 63 shares in the last quarter. Essex Financial Services Inc. raised its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Essex Financial Services Inc. now owns 6,667 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,009,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hilltop Holdings Inc. raised its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Hilltop Holdings Inc. now owns 2,525 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $382,000 after purchasing an additional 68 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 268 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $153.15, for a total value of $41,044.20. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 483 shares in the company, valued at $73,971.45. This trade represents a 35.69% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Aaron Powell sold 6,001 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.42, for a total value of $962,680.42. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 12,003 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,925,521.26. The trade was a 33.33% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 19,043 shares of company stock worth $2,978,180 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on YUM. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $168.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, May 4th. Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Tuesday, June 16th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Yum! Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the company from $180.00 to $185.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded shares of Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, August 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have given a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $174.65.

Check Out Our Latest Research Report on Yum! Brands

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

YUM opened at $154.08 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $153.48 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $155.81. The stock has a market capitalization of $42.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.38, a P/E/G ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.55. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $137.33 and a 52-week high of $170.14.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The restaurant operator reported $1.62 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.58 by $0.04. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 25.42% and a negative return on equity of 24.57%. The firm had revenue of $2.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.18 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.44 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.2% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 6.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands announced that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Tuesday, June 16th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the restaurant operator to buy up to 9.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 9th will be given a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 9th. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is 37.74%.

About Yum! Brands

(Free Report)

Yum! Brands, Inc (NYSE: YUM) is a global quick-service restaurant company that develops, operates and franchises a portfolio of well-known restaurant brands. The company’s principal brands are KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, each focused on distinct product categories—KFC on fried chicken and related menu items, Pizza Hut on pizza and complementary offerings, and Taco Bell on Mexican-inspired quick-service food. Yum! is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky and was formed as Tricon Global Restaurants in 1997 when PepsiCo spun off its restaurant businesses, later adopting the Yum! Brands name.

The company’s operating model centers on brand development, system growth and franchising; a large portion of its restaurants are operated by independent franchisees, and Yum! generates revenue through franchise royalties and fees in addition to sales from company-operated locations.