Retirement Guys Formula LLC Takes Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Retirement Guys Formula LLC bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 4,475 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $620,000.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of YUM. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter valued at $331,831,000. Capital World Investors lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 4.9% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 14,650,728 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,914,257,000 after acquiring an additional 678,659 shares in the last quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 107.5% in the 4th quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 1,254,446 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $163,906,000 after acquiring an additional 649,922 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 55.8% in the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,592,259 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $208,045,000 after acquiring an additional 570,263 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 23,405,452 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $3,058,156,000 after acquiring an additional 373,232 shares in the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of YUM stock traded down $0.45 during trading on Thursday, reaching $129.58. The company had a trading volume of 935,934 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,127,605. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $136.88 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $135.06. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $115.53 and a one year high of $143.20. The company has a market capitalization of $36.49 billion, a PE ratio of 22.98, a PEG ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 1.07.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 1st. The restaurant operator reported $1.15 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.20 by ($0.05). The company had revenue of $1.60 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.71 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 22.92% and a negative return on equity of 18.64%. The firm’s revenue was down 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.06 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.64 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 7th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 28th were given a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.07%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 24th. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.52%.

Yum! Brands announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, May 15th that authorizes the company to repurchase $2.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the restaurant operator to reacquire up to 5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently issued reports on YUM. TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $156.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday, June 13th. 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 objective for the company. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on Yum! Brands from $133.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Barclays increased their price objective on Yum! Brands from $144.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Yum! Brands from $132.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, June 3rd. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $144.33.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,078 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.37, for a total value of $979,382.86. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 172,128 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,817,351.36. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,078 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.37, for a total value of $979,382.86. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 172,128 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,817,351.36. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Paget Leonard Alves sold 6,309 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.19, for a total value of $859,222.71. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 33,515 shares of company stock valued at $4,620,080 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

About Yum! Brands

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.