Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Short Interest Update

Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) saw a large increase in short interest in the month of June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 10,260,000 shares, an increase of 28.7% from the May 31st total of 7,970,000 shares. Currently, 3.7% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,980,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 5.2 days.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,078 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.37, for a total value of $979,382.86. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 172,128 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,817,351.36. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,078 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $138.37, for a total transaction 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Paget Leonard Alves sold 6,309 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.19, for a total transaction of $859,222.71. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 33,515 shares of company stock worth $4,620,080 in the last quarter. 0.31% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Yum! Brands

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Global Retirement Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 14.1% during the fourth quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 631 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $82,000 after purchasing an additional 78 shares during the last quarter. Calamos Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 5.0% during the fourth quarter. Calamos Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,692 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $221,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,003 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,046,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares during the last quarter. Choreo LLC increased its holdings in Yum! Brands by 1.6% in the first quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 5,312 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $737,000 after purchasing an additional 82 shares during the period. Finally, Claro Advisors LLC raised its position in Yum! Brands by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Claro Advisors LLC now owns 8,847 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,156,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have issued reports on YUM shares. Argus reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Guggenheim raised 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. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $166.00 to $162.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $144.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating and set a $156.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, June 13th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $144.33.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of YUM stock traded down $0.15 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $132.46. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 5,818,971 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,881,942. Yum! Brands has a fifty-two week low of $115.53 and a fifty-two week high of $143.20. The company has a market capitalization of $37.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.49, a PEG ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 1.08. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $137.51 and its 200-day simple moving average is $135.03.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The restaurant operator reported $1.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.20 by ($0.05). Yum! Brands had a net margin of 22.92% and a negative return on equity of 18.64%. The business had revenue of $1.60 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.71 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.06 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Yum! Brands will post 5.64 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, May 15th that permits the company to repurchase $2.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the restaurant operator to purchase up to 5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 7th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 28th were given a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 24th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.02%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.52%.

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.