Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Shares Sold by Pitcairn Co.

Pitcairn Co. lessened its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 1.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 7,657 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 121 shares during the period. Pitcairn Co.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $1,027,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in YUM. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter valued at about $418,692,000. Cantillon Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 31.7% in the fourth 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 period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter worth approximately $59,289,000. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 140.3% in the 4th quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 437,625 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $58,712,000 after acquiring an additional 255,495 shares during the period. Finally, Anchor Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter valued at $30,098,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

YUM has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Oppenheimer lifted 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. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Yum! Brands from $146.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. TD Securities reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $164.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Monday, March 31st. Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $141.00 target price (down previously from $153.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Argus raised Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, December 31st. Sixteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $151.70.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 30,604 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.46, for a total transaction of $4,880,113.84. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 160,296 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,560,800.16. This trade represents a 16.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, VP David Eric Russell sold 5,000 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.66, for a total value of $793,300.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 11,960 shares in the company, valued at $1,897,573.60. This trade represents a 29.48 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 50,132 shares of company stock valued at $7,952,685 in the last 90 days. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

YUM stock opened at $147.52 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $41.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a 50-day moving average of $150.15 and a two-hundred day moving average of $139.41. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $122.13 and a 52-week high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st were given a dividend of $0.71 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.93%. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is currently 54.41%.

Yum! Brands Company 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.