Park Avenue Securities LLC Decreases Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Park Avenue Securities LLC reduced its stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 1.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 7,872 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 118 shares during the quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $1,056,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of YUM. Kathmere Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Yum! Brands by 22.1% in the 4th quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC now owns 3,114 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $418,000 after buying an additional 563 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in Yum! Brands by 30.3% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 130,714 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $17,537,000 after purchasing an additional 30,399 shares in the last quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter worth approximately $296,000. Cadent Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Cadent Capital Advisors LLC now owns 24,730 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $3,318,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wedmont Private Capital boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 4.5% during the 4th quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 3,732 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $460,000 after buying an additional 161 shares during the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling 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 stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $20,474,708.10. This trade represents a 2.49 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.31% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

YUM has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Redburn Atlantic lowered shares of Yum! Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price objective on Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. 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, Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $141.00 price target (down from $153.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Friday, January 10th. Eleven investment 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.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $146.24.

Yum! Brands Trading Down 0.7 %

NYSE YUM opened at $125.31 on Tuesday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $133.85 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $133.66. The stock has a market cap of $34.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 1.11. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $122.13 and a 52 week high of $143.20.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.37 earnings per share 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 period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.44 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd were given a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.14%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.