Blue Trust Inc. Has $724,000 Stock Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 45.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,179 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,618 shares during the quarter. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $724,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of Yum! Brands stock opened at $129.31 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $36.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 1.11. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $122.13 and a one year high of $143.20. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $132.84 and its 200-day moving average is $133.58.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its quarterly 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). Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 18.93% and a net margin of 21.13%. The firm had revenue of $1.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.90 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.44 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.46 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were paid a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.07%. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is currently 50.09%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on YUM shares. Argus raised shares of Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, December 31st. Loop Capital lowered their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $143.00 to $140.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $140.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $140.00 price objective (down previously from $158.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $144.89.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of Yum! Brands 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 149,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,474,708.10. The trade was a 2.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

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.