Windward Capital Management Co. CA Cuts Stock Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Windward Capital Management Co. CA lessened its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 8.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,140 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 186 shares during the quarter. Windward Capital Management Co. CA’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $287,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 1.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,441,170 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,038,775,000 after acquiring an additional 111,147 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,632,862 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $228,127,000 after purchasing an additional 6,537 shares in the last quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,428,040 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $199,511,000 after purchasing an additional 51,690 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank increased its position in Yum! Brands by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 835,800 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $116,770,000 after purchasing an additional 2,800 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its holdings in 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 valued at $96,348,000 after buying an additional 20,966 shares during the period. 82.37% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of YUM stock opened at $131.51 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $132.49 and a two-hundred day moving average of $133.63. The firm has a market cap of $36.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.58, a P/E/G ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 1.11. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $122.13 and a 1-year high of $143.20.

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

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were issued a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.04%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 50.09%.

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.06, for a total transaction of $522,883.90. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 149,385 shares in the company, valued at $20,474,708.10. The trade was a 2.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

YUM has been the subject of several research reports. Argus upgraded 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 note on Tuesday, December 31st. Loop Capital lowered their price target on Yum! Brands from $143.00 to $140.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Redburn Atlantic cut Yum! Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $140.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their target price on Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $144.89.

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.