Securian Asset Management Inc. Has $2 Million Stock Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Securian Asset Management Inc. decreased its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 4.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 14,904 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 635 shares during the period. Securian Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $2,000,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in YUM. Cantillon Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 31.7% in the 4th quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,880,379 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $252,272,000 after acquiring an additional 452,339 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter worth about $59,289,000. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC raised its position in Yum! Brands by 140.3% in the fourth quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 437,625 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $58,712,000 after purchasing an additional 255,495 shares during the last quarter. Anchor Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter valued at about $30,098,000. Finally, Amundi grew its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 23.8% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 749,895 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $95,792,000 after purchasing an additional 144,406 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on YUM shares. Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $141.00 price objective (down previously from $153.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Friday, January 10th. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $140.00 to $135.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $130.00 to $148.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, TD Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $140.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Fifteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $150.95.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of YUM stock opened at $153.50 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $140.58 and a 200-day moving average of $136.91. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $122.13 and a one year high of $163.30. The company has a market cap of $42.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.41, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 21st were given a dividend of $0.71 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 21st. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.85%. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 54.41%.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction on 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 in the company, valued at approximately $20,474,708.10. This trade represents a 2.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 8,638 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.36, for a total value of $1,367,913.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 2,970 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $470,329.20. This trade represents a 74.41 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 48,654 shares of company stock worth $7,659,176 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

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.