Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Shares Sold by Great Lakes Advisors LLC

Great Lakes Advisors LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 15.8% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 3,245 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 608 shares during the period. Great Lakes Advisors LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $435,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Investment Partners LTD. boosted its position in Yum! Brands by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Investment Partners LTD. now owns 3,231 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $433,000 after acquiring an additional 72 shares during the last quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 5.0% during the 4th quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 1,575 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $211,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC grew its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC now owns 2,165 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $290,000 after purchasing an additional 82 shares in the last quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 7.4% in the third quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 1,329 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $186,000 after purchasing an additional 92 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Atria Investments Inc lifted its position in Yum! Brands by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 24,937 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $3,346,000 after buying an additional 92 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have issued reports on YUM shares. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. TD Securities raised their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $151.00 to $164.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $176.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Argus upgraded shares of 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. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein cut 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. Fifteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $150.95.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 1.1 %

YUM stock opened at $155.09 on Monday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $141.01 and a 200 day moving average price of $137.08. The stock has a market cap of $43.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.71, a PEG ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $122.13 and a fifty-two week high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Investors of record on Friday, February 21st were given a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.83%. 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 dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 54.41%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Yum! Brands news, VP David Eric Russell sold 5,000 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction on 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 directly owns 11,960 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,897,573.60. The trade was a 29.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 8,638 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.36, for a total transaction of $1,367,913.68. Following the sale, 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 44,839 shares of company stock worth $7,136,292 in the last ninety days. 0.31% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.