IFP Advisors Inc Buys 555 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

IFP Advisors Inc boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 14.0% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 4,526 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 555 shares during the period. IFP Advisors Inc’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $614,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Yum! Brands by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,441,170 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,038,775,000 after buying an additional 111,147 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Yum! Brands by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,632,862 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $228,127,000 after buying an additional 6,537 shares in the last quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC increased its position in Yum! Brands by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,428,040 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $199,511,000 after buying an additional 51,690 shares in the last quarter. Swiss National Bank increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 835,800 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $116,770,000 after purchasing an additional 2,800 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 696,714 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $93,471,000 after purchasing an additional 7,083 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of the business’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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,385 shares in the company, valued at $20,474,708.10. The trade was a 2.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.31% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have commented on the company. UBS Group lifted their target price on Yum! Brands from $156.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “equal weight” rating and issued a $140.00 target price (down previously from $158.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Loop Capital reduced their target price on Yum! Brands from $143.00 to $140.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Thirteen equities research 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, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $148.32.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

NYSE YUM opened at $156.43 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $43.66 billion, a PE ratio of 29.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.11. The business’s fifty day moving average is $136.39 and its 200 day moving average is $135.62. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $122.13 and a fifty-two week high of $156.56.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Investors of record on Friday, February 21st will be given a dividend of $0.71 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 21st. This is an increase from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.82%. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is 54.41%.

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.