Stephens Inc. AR Sells 96 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Stephens Inc. AR reduced its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 0.8% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 12,201 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 96 shares during the period. Stephens Inc. AR’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $1,808,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC raised its stake in Yum! Brands by 23.9% during the 2nd quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 2,930 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $433,000 after buying an additional 566 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Yum! Brands by 21.8% during the 2nd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 2,387 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $354,000 after buying an additional 427 shares during the period. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al acquired a new position in Yum! Brands during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $61,613,000. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in Yum! Brands by 2.7% during the 2nd quarter. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,363 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $498,000 after buying an additional 87 shares during the period. Finally, Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC raised its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 0.3% in the second quarter. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC now owns 153,513 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $22,748,000 after purchasing an additional 458 shares during the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, Director Weir Mirian M. Graddick sold 2,038 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $145.30, for a total transaction of $296,121.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 1,233 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $179,154.90. This represents a 62.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Scott Mezvinsky sold 275 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $152.59, for a total value of $41,962.25. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,755 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $267,795.45. This trade represents a 13.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 29,078 shares of company stock valued at $4,304,785 in the last three months. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently commented on YUM shares. Barclays lowered their price objective on Yum! Brands from $164.00 to $163.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Yum! Brands from $162.00 to $160.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th. Royal Bank Of Canada started coverage on Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. They issued a “sector perform” rating and a $165.00 price objective for the company. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $167.00 price objective (up from $165.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein set a $164.00 price objective on Yum! Brands in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and thirteen have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $163.14.

Yum! Brands Trading Down 0.6%

Shares of YUM opened at $146.42 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $40.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.88, a PEG ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.72. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $147.45 and a 200 day moving average of $146.24. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $122.13 and a 12 month high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued 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). The business had revenue of $1.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.94 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 18.11% and a negative return on equity of 21.01%. The business’s revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.35 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 12th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 2nd were issued a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 2nd. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is 56.02%.

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.