SG Americas Securities LLC Has $639,000 Stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

SG Americas Securities LLC lowered its stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 98.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 4,763 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 287,877 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $639,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Toronto Dominion Bank raised its holdings in Yum! Brands by 15.5% in the 3rd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 127,446 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $17,805,000 after acquiring an additional 17,133 shares in the last quarter. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the third quarter valued at $1,262,000. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its position in Yum! Brands by 3.1% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 689,631 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $96,348,000 after purchasing an additional 20,966 shares during the period. Infusive Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 15.1% during the third quarter. Infusive Asset Management Inc. now owns 43,419 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $6,066,000 after buying an additional 5,684 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Forsta AP Fonden increased its holdings in Yum! Brands by 6.6% in the 3rd quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 104,900 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $14,656,000 after buying an additional 6,500 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on YUM. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $145.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Bank of America lowered their price objective on Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Morgan Stanley restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $140.00 target price (down previously from $158.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Loop Capital lowered their price target on Yum! Brands from $143.00 to $140.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $144.89.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.06, for a total value of $522,883.90. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 149,385 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,474,708.10. This represents a 2.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

YUM stock opened at $130.67 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $36.47 billion, a PE ratio of 24.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $132.76 and a 200 day moving average price of $133.55. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $122.13 and a fifty-two week high of $143.20.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.37 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.41 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $1.83 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.90 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 18.93% and a net margin of 21.13%. The company’s revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.44 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were given a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.05%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 2nd. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is 50.09%.

Yum! Brands Company 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.