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

Crestwood Advisors Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 47.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,232 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,033 shares during the period. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $434,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC grew its stake in Yum! Brands by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC now owns 2,165 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $290,000 after acquiring an additional 82 shares in the last quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Yum! Brands by 7.4% in the 3rd quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 1,329 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $186,000 after buying an additional 92 shares in the last quarter. Graypoint LLC grew its stake in Yum! Brands by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Graypoint LLC now owns 5,902 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $792,000 after buying an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. grew its stake in Yum! Brands by 52.1% in the 4th quarter. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. now owns 295 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 101 shares in the last quarter. Finally, L.M. Kohn & Company grew its stake in Yum! Brands by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. L.M. Kohn & Company now owns 2,854 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $399,000 after buying an additional 103 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Trading Up 2.7 %

Shares of NYSE YUM opened at $154.33 on Wednesday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $122.13 and a 12 month high of $154.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.07 billion, a PE ratio of 29.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.11. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $135.04 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $135.23.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 21st will be issued a $0.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 21st. This is a positive change from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.84%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is 54.41%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.06, for a total value of $522,883.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,385 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,474,708.10. This represents a 2.49 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. TD Securities upped their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $151.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $162.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price objective 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. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $147.37.

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.