Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Stock Position Raised by abrdn plc

abrdn plc increased its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 68.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 117,966 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 47,875 shares during the period. abrdn plc’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $15,413,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in YUM. Global Retirement Partners LLC raised its position in Yum! Brands by 21.3% during the third quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 553 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $68,000 after buying an additional 97 shares during the period. Caprock Group LLC grew its stake in Yum! Brands by 18.7% during the 3rd quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 1,724 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $215,000 after acquiring an additional 272 shares in the last quarter. Fiduciary Alliance LLC acquired a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at about $276,000. Czech National Bank lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 47.7% in the third quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 48,976 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $6,119,000 after purchasing an additional 15,820 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ballentine Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 3.1% during the third quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 4,488 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $561,000 after purchasing an additional 136 shares during the period. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on YUM shares. Guggenheim upped their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Oppenheimer upgraded Yum! Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $154.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday, January 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Yum! Brands from $133.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. Argus reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $166.00 to $162.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $144.75.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Shares of Yum! Brands stock opened at $141.81 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $137.71 and a two-hundred day moving average of $130.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $39.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.37, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.10. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $115.53 and a 52 week high of $143.24.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

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