GAMMA Investing LLC Has $693,000 Stock Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 50.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 5,168 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,735 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $693,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in YUM. Legacy Financial Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 2.2% during the second quarter. Legacy Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 3,460 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $458,000 after purchasing an additional 76 shares in the last quarter. Diversified Trust Co lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 3,321 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $464,000 after buying an additional 79 shares during the period. Meeder Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 43.6% in the 2nd quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 270 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 82 shares in the last quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC grew its position in Yum! Brands by 7.4% in the third quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 1,329 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $186,000 after acquiring an additional 92 shares during the period. Finally, Occidental Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Yum! Brands by 2.5% during the third quarter. Occidental Asset Management LLC now owns 3,880 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $542,000 after acquiring an additional 96 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Redburn Atlantic cut shares of Yum! Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Bank of America dropped their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Argus raised Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, December 31st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Yum! Brands from $137.00 to $144.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $146.44.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.06, for a total transaction of $522,883.90. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,474,708.10. This trade represents a 2.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 17,879 shares of company stock worth $2,424,167. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:YUM opened at $133.44 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $37.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.94, a P/E/G ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a 50 day moving average of $135.41 and a 200-day moving average of $134.08. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $124.76 and a one year high of $143.20.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.37 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.41 by ($0.04). Yum! Brands had a net margin of 21.13% and a negative return on equity of 18.93%. The business had revenue of $1.83 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.90 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.44 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.01%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 2nd. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 50.09%.

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.