American Century Companies Inc. Acquires 1,214 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

American Century Companies Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 1.7% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 71,638 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,214 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $9,489,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 24.0% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,012,969 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $4,022,648,000 after acquiring an additional 5,607,517 shares during the period. Capital World Investors grew its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 23.7% during the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 18,121,611 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,512,561,000 after acquiring an additional 3,470,883 shares during the period. Capital International Investors lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 10.2% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 14,669,356 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,033,906,000 after buying an additional 1,362,813 shares in the last quarter. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.1% during the 1st quarter. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP now owns 5,939,663 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $823,534,000 after buying an additional 121,285 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 36.6% during the 1st quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 2,174,526 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $301,498,000 after buying an additional 582,267 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

YUM has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $155.00 to $153.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $143.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $137.00 to $144.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $135.00 to $130.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, Evercore ISI cut shares of Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to an “inline” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $160.00 to $145.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $145.25.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 6,961 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $131.02, for a total transaction of $912,030.22. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 162,381 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,275,158.62. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 6,961 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $131.02, for a total transaction of $912,030.22. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 162,381 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,275,158.62. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,069 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.92, for a total transaction of $974,956.48. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 159,132 shares in the company, valued at $21,947,485.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 101,629 shares of company stock worth $13,888,443. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Yum! Brands Trading Down 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE YUM opened at $129.71 on Monday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $133.29 and its 200-day moving average price is $135.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $36.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.00, a P/E/G ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 1.08. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $115.53 and a 12-month high of $143.20.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The restaurant operator reported $1.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.33 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.80 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 21.96% and a negative return on equity of 18.90%. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.41 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 27th were given a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.07%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 27th. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is 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.