CENTRAL TRUST Co Has $2.08 Million Stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

CENTRAL TRUST Co reduced its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 33.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 15,510 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 7,638 shares during the period. CENTRAL TRUST Co’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $2,081,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in YUM. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new position in Yum! Brands during the 3rd quarter worth $29,000. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. grew its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 957.1% in the third quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. now owns 222 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 201 shares in the last quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in Yum! Brands during the third quarter worth about $42,000. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates raised its stake in Yum! Brands by 649.0% in the 4th quarter. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates now owns 367 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $49,000 after purchasing an additional 318 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 44.6% in the 3rd quarter. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC now owns 441 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $62,000 after purchasing an additional 136 shares during the period. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on YUM. Bank of America dropped their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Redburn Atlantic cut Yum! Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $141.00 target price (down from $153.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Friday, January 10th. Argus raised shares of Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, December 31st. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein cut shares of Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $140.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $144.89.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Yum! Brands Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of YUM opened at $130.48 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $36.41 billion, a PE ratio of 24.39, a PEG ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 1.11. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $122.13 and a 12-month high of $143.20. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $132.60 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $133.58.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 firm 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 company earned $1.44 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.46 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.05%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 50.09%.

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.