Venturi Wealth Management LLC Sells 87 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Venturi Wealth Management LLC reduced its stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 5.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,607 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 87 shares during the period. Venturi Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $216,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC now owns 2,165 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $290,000 after acquiring an additional 82 shares during the last quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 7.4% during the 3rd quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 1,329 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $186,000 after acquiring an additional 92 shares during the last quarter. Graypoint LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Graypoint LLC now owns 5,902 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $792,000 after acquiring an additional 97 shares during the last quarter. Joel Isaacson & Co. LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. Joel Isaacson & Co. LLC now owns 4,927 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $688,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 52.1% in the fourth quarter. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. now owns 295 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 101 shares during the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 149,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have issued reports on YUM shares. Morgan Stanley restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $140.00 price target (down from $158.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. TD Cowen restated a “hold” rating and set a $140.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. TD Securities upped their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $151.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Argus upgraded shares of Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 target price for the company in a report on Tuesday, December 31st. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $147.37.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE YUM opened at $148.51 on Friday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $122.13 and a fifty-two week high of $151.29. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $134.35 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $135.04. The company has a market capitalization of $41.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.45, a P/E/G ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 1.10.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.71 per share. This is an increase from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 21st. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.91%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 54.41%.

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.