Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI Raises Stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 6.3% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 13,465 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 801 shares during the quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $1,881,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Crewe Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the first quarter worth $28,000. EntryPoint Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 29.2% in the first quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC now owns 416 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $58,000 after acquiring an additional 94 shares during the last quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 4.6% during the 1st quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 13,708 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,901,000 after buying an additional 602 shares during the last quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 82.9% in the 1st quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,064 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,257,000 after purchasing an additional 4,107 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Advisors Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in Yum! Brands by 11.6% during the first quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 44,376 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $6,153,000 after buying an additional 4,613 shares during the period. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on YUM. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $145.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Yum! Brands from $150.00 to $154.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Loop Capital lowered their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $143.00 to $140.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Redburn Atlantic cut shares of Yum! Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price target on Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $145.94.

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,005 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.43, for a total transaction of $941,682.15. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 152,634 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,518,588.62. This represents a 4.39 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 21,069 shares of company stock valued at $2,842,965. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of YUM opened at $134.22 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $134.42 and a two-hundred day moving average of $134.50. The stock has a market cap of $37.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.09, a PEG ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 1.10. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $123.70 and a one year high of $143.20.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.37 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.41 by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $1.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.90 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 21.13% and a negative return on equity of 18.93%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.44 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.47 earnings per share for the current year.

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.