Harbour Investments Inc. Raises Stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Harbour Investments Inc. grew its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 19.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,161 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 508 shares during the quarter. Harbour Investments Inc.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $424,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $29,000. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. grew its position in Yum! Brands by 52.1% in the fourth quarter. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. now owns 295 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $40,000 after acquiring an additional 101 shares during the period. Finally, Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in Yum! Brands in the third quarter worth approximately $42,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

YUM has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Yum! Brands from $138.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $146.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Argus upgraded shares of Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, December 31st. Finally, TD Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $140.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Fifteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $151.79.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 5,293 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.24, for a total value of $816,392.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 157,893 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,353,416.32. This represents a 3.24 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP David Eric Russell sold 5,000 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.66, for a total transaction of $793,300.00. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 11,960 shares in the company, valued at $1,897,573.60. This represents a 29.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 50,132 shares of company stock worth $7,952,685. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Yum! Brands Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE:YUM opened at $157.85 on Friday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $122.13 and a 52 week high of $163.30. The company’s 50 day moving average is $143.32 and its two-hundred day moving average is $137.67. The company has a market cap of $44.06 billion, a PE ratio of 30.24, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 21st were issued a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.80%. This is an increase from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 21st. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is 54.41%.

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.