Perigon Wealth Management LLC Has $1.44 Million Stock Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Perigon Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 6.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 11,413 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 660 shares during the period. Perigon Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $1,441,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Toronto Dominion Bank boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 15.5% in the third quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 127,446 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $17,805,000 after buying an additional 17,133 shares during the period. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the third quarter worth $1,262,000. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 3.1% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 689,631 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $96,348,000 after buying an additional 20,966 shares during the period. Infusive Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 15.1% in the third quarter. Infusive Asset Management Inc. now owns 43,419 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $6,066,000 after buying an additional 5,684 shares during the period. Finally, Forsta AP Fonden raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 6.6% during the third quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 104,900 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $14,656,000 after acquiring an additional 6,500 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.06, for a total transaction of $522,883.90. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,474,708.10. This trade represents a 2.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.31% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on YUM. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $140.00 to $135.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $141.00 price objective (down from $153.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Friday, January 10th. Bank of America cut their price objective on Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “equal weight” rating and set a $140.00 price objective (down from $158.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Loop Capital cut their price objective on Yum! Brands from $143.00 to $140.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $144.89.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:YUM opened at $129.31 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $36.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.17, a P/E/G ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 1.11. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $132.84 and its 200-day moving average is $133.58. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $122.13 and a 52-week high of $143.20.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.41 by ($0.04). Yum! Brands had a net margin of 21.13% and a negative return on equity of 18.93%. The business had revenue of $1.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.90 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.44 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.46 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd were given a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.07%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 2nd. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.