SVB Wealth LLC Has $1.44 Million Stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

SVB Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 8.1% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 11,019 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 823 shares during the period. SVB Wealth LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $1,440,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.5% during the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,947,399 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $784,673,000 after acquiring an additional 90,152 shares in the last quarter. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP raised its position in Yum! Brands by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP now owns 5,766,650 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $720,485,000 after purchasing an additional 210,238 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its position in Yum! Brands by 19.6% during the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 5,507,237 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $652,773,000 after purchasing an additional 901,181 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its position in Yum! Brands by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 4,365,517 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $517,792,000 after purchasing an additional 67,468 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its position in Yum! Brands by 3.9% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,278,341 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $409,596,000 after purchasing an additional 124,080 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently issued reports on YUM shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Yum! Brands from $133.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. Guggenheim raised their target price on Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $141.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 9th. TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $160.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $135.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $145.00.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of Yum! Brands stock opened at $137.84 on Friday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $115.53 and a one year high of $143.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $38.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.66, a PEG ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.10. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $137.06 and a 200 day simple moving average of $130.08.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The restaurant operator reported $1.26 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by ($0.13). Yum! Brands had a net margin of 22.57% and a negative return on equity of 17.76%. The firm had revenue of $2.04 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.11 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.31 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.73 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 8th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 21st were given a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.94%. This is a positive change from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.61. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 20th. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is presently 47.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,078 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.37, for a total transaction of $979,382.86. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 172,128 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,817,351.36. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,067 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $136.34, for a total transaction of $963,514.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 175,377 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,910,900.18. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,078 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $138.37, for a total value of $979,382.86. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 172,128 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,817,351.36. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 24,064 shares of company stock worth $3,228,698. Insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

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.