Pacer Advisors Inc. Sells 517,978 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Pacer Advisors Inc. cut its stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 90.9% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 52,150 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 517,978 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $7,286,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of YUM. EntryPoint Capital LLC lifted its stake 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 buying an additional 94 shares in the last quarter. LRI Investments LLC purchased a new position in Yum! Brands in the 1st quarter worth approximately $120,000. BOKF NA lifted its position in Yum! Brands by 30.4% in the 1st quarter. BOKF NA now owns 28,890 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $4,058,000 after acquiring an additional 6,728 shares in the last quarter. Ascent Group LLC boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 4.3% during the 1st quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 2,045 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $284,000 after purchasing an additional 84 shares during the last quarter. Finally, B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 9.4% in the 1st quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 3,846 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $533,000 after purchasing an additional 332 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,059 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.94, for a total value of $959,600.46. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 149,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,307,396.90. The trade was a 4.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders sold 21,069 shares of company stock worth $2,842,965 in the last three months. 0.31% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on YUM. Loop Capital dropped their price objective on Yum! Brands from $143.00 to $140.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Bank of America dropped their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Redburn Atlantic downgraded shares of Yum! Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $137.00 to $144.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $145.94.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:YUM opened at $135.27 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $37.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.28, a P/E/G ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 1.10. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $123.70 and a 1-year high of $143.20. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $134.45 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $134.49.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.37 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.41 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $1.83 billion for 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 firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.44 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd will be issued a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.98%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 50.09%.

Yum! Brands 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.