Hills Bank & Trust Co Sells 145 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Hills Bank & Trust Co lessened its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 5.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,602 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 145 shares during the quarter. Hills Bank & Trust Co’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $349,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in YUM. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter worth $25,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new position in Yum! Brands in the third quarter worth $29,000. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC bought a new position in Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter worth $33,000. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. raised its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 101 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in Yum! Brands in the third quarter worth $42,000. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of YUM opened at $155.09 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $141.01 and its 200 day moving average is $137.07. The company has a market capitalization of $43.29 billion, a PE ratio of 29.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $122.13 and a 12-month high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st were issued a $0.71 dividend. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.83%. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is 54.41%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on YUM shares. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Argus upgraded 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. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $176.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Barclays raised their price target on Yum! Brands from $162.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on Yum! Brands from $156.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Fifteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $150.95.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,474,708.10. The trade was a 2.49 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 8,638 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was 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 directly owns 2,970 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $470,329.20. The trade was a 74.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 48,654 shares of company stock worth $7,659,176. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.