St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC Acquires 229 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC grew its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 5.2% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,650 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 229 shares during the period. St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $645,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brookstone Capital Management lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 12.3% during the first quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 2,141 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $297,000 after purchasing an additional 234 shares during the last quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 21.1% during the first quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,540 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $352,000 after purchasing an additional 443 shares during the last quarter. Lloyd Advisory Services LLC. bought a new stake in Yum! Brands during the first quarter worth about $1,259,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new stake in Yum! Brands during the first quarter worth about $48,000. Finally, Ballentine Partners LLC lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 9.5% during the first quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 6,918 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $959,000 after purchasing an additional 602 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

YUM has been the topic of several analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Yum! Brands from $132.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, June 3rd. Argus reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $156.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, June 13th. Guggenheim lifted their price objective on Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, June 13th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $150.00 price objective on the stock. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $144.33.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,078 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.37, for a total value of $979,382.86. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 172,128 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,817,351.36. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,078 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.37, for a total value of $979,382.86. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 172,128 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,817,351.36. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,061 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.43, for a total value of $963,332.23. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 165,630 shares in the company, valued at $22,596,900.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 33,515 shares of company stock valued at $4,620,080 in the last ninety days. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

YUM stock opened at $131.87 on Thursday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $115.53 and a fifty-two week high of $143.20. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $137.86 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $135.02. The company has a market capitalization of $37.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 1.08.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The restaurant operator reported $1.15 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.20 by ($0.05). Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 18.64% and a net margin of 22.92%. The firm had revenue of $1.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.71 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.06 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.64 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 7th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 28th were given a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 24th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.03%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.52%.

Yum! Brands declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, May 15th that allows the company to repurchase $2.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the restaurant operator to repurchase up to 5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.