Empower Advisory Group LLC Raises Stock Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Empower Advisory Group LLC lifted its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 10.7% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 3,071 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 298 shares during the period. Empower Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $429,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of YUM. Crewe Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the first quarter worth about $28,000. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. grew its stake in Yum! Brands by 957.1% during the 3rd quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. now owns 222 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 201 shares during the last quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. increased its position in Yum! Brands by 43.6% during the second quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 270 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 82 shares during the period. Kimelman & Baird LLC purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands in the second quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Finally, Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 3,088.9% in the second quarter. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC now owns 287 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 278 shares during the period. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In other news, Director Weir Mirian M. Graddick sold 1,309 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.40, for a total value of $179,856.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,233 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $169,414.20. The trade was a 51.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,005 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.43, for a total value of $941,682.15. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 152,634 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,518,588.62. The trade was a 4.39 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 15,319 shares of company stock valued at $2,063,221 in the last 90 days. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on YUM. Loop Capital reduced their price target 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. Bank of America reduced their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. TD Cowen reissued a “hold” rating and set a $145.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on Yum! Brands from $135.00 to $130.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Yum! Brands from $137.00 to $144.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Twelve 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.com, Yum! Brands currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $145.94.

Yum! Brands Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of Yum! Brands stock opened at $136.74 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $134.38 and a two-hundred day moving average of $134.64. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $123.70 and a 12-month high of $143.20. The stock has a market cap of $38.16 billion, a PE ratio of 25.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 1.10.

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 firm had revenue of $1.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.90 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 21.13% and a negative return on equity of 18.93%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.44 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.