The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Sells 433 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lowered its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 0.3% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 169,689 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 433 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company owned 0.06% of Yum! Brands worth $22,477,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Manchester Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 165.7% during the 1st quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 186 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 116 shares in the last quarter. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 79.8% during the 1st quarter. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. now owns 187 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 83 shares in the last quarter. Redmont Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Yum! Brands during the 1st quarter worth $28,000. Crewe Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Yum! Brands during the 1st quarter worth $28,000. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 43.6% during the 2nd quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 270 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 82 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,069 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 159,132 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,947,485.44. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,069 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 159,132 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,947,485.44. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,005 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.43, for a total transaction of $941,682.15. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 155,883 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,955,351.69. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 101,629 shares of company stock worth $13,888,443. Corporate insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

YUM has been the topic of several research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Yum! Brands from $137.00 to $144.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday, June 13th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $150.00 price target on the stock. Evercore ISI downgraded Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to an “inline” rating and cut their price target for the company from $160.00 to $145.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Yum! Brands from $155.00 to $153.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their price target on Yum! Brands from $150.00 to $154.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $145.25.

Yum! Brands Trading Down 0.3 %

YUM stock opened at $139.24 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $134.45 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $135.37. The stock has a market cap of $39.15 billion, a PE ratio of 24.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 1.08. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $115.53 and a 1 year high of $143.20.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The restaurant operator reported $1.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.33 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.76 billion during 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 quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.41 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 27th were issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.92%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 27th. 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.