Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado Sells 303 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado lowered its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 0.8% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 38,453 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 303 shares during the quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $5,093,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in YUM. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 24.0% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,012,969 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $4,022,648,000 after acquiring an additional 5,607,517 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 23.7% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 18,121,611 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,512,561,000 after acquiring an additional 3,470,883 shares during the last quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the first quarter worth about $200,668,000. Capital International Investors raised its holdings in Yum! Brands by 10.2% in 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Epoch Investment Partners Inc. raised its holdings in Yum! Brands by 107.5% in the 4th quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 1,254,446 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $163,906,000 after buying an additional 649,922 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

NYSE YUM opened at $129.71 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $36.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.00, a PEG ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 1.08. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $115.53 and a one year high of $143.20. The business’s fifty day moving average is $133.29 and its 200-day moving average is $135.50.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The restaurant operator reported $1.35 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.33 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.80 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 18.90% and a net margin of 21.96%. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.41 EPS. Research analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 27th were paid a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.07%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 27th. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.52%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on YUM. Evercore ISI lowered shares of Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to an “inline” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $160.00 to $145.00 in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $135.00 to $130.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $137.00 to $144.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $143.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, June 13th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $150.00 price target for the company. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $145.25.

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

In related news, Director Weir Mirian M. Graddick sold 1,309 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.40, for a total value of $179,856.60. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 1,233 shares in the company, valued at approximately $169,414.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, Director Weir Mirian M. Graddick sold 1,309 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.40, for a total value of $179,856.60. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 1,233 shares in the company, valued at approximately $169,414.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,005 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.43, for a total value of $941,682.15. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 155,883 shares in the company, valued at $20,955,351.69. 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. Company insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

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.