Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC Purchases 7,686 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC boosted its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 21.8% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 42,993 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,686 shares during the period. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $5,961,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,211,000. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 14.6% during the third quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,948 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $368,000 after buying an additional 375 shares during the last quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 318.7% during the third quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. now owns 204,952 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $25,607,000 after buying an additional 156,000 shares during the last quarter. KPP Advisory Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the third quarter valued at approximately $267,000. Finally, Scotia Capital Inc. boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 3.6% during the third quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 34,368 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $4,294,000 after buying an additional 1,184 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,061 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.43, for a total transaction of $963,332.23. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 165,630 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,596,900.90. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,078 shares of the company’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 transaction of $979,382.86. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 172,128 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,817,351.36. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,061 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 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. In the last quarter, insiders sold 33,515 shares of company stock valued at $4,620,080. Insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

YUM has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, June 13th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $150.00 price target on the stock. Argus reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Yum! Brands from $133.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Yum! Brands from $132.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, June 3rd. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on Yum! Brands from $144.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $144.33.

Yum! Brands Trading Down 2.1 %

YUM opened at $129.70 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $137.51 and a 200-day moving average price of $135.10. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $115.53 and a 12-month high of $143.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $36.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.00, a PEG ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 1.08.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released 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 net margin of 22.92% and a negative return on equity of 18.64%. The company had revenue of $1.60 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.71 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.06 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.64 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Wednesday, May 15th that authorizes the company to repurchase $2.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the restaurant operator to repurchase up to 5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 7th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 28th were paid a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.07%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 24th. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.52%.

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.