ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. Has $19.86 Million Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 9.5% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 148,064 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 12,814 shares during the period. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $19,864,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of YUM. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 18.4% during the 4th quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 805 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $108,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares during the last quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Yum! Brands by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,331 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,520,000 after buying an additional 460 shares during the period. Merit Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 34.1% during the fourth quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 10,623 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,425,000 after buying an additional 2,701 shares during the last quarter. Avanza Fonder AB bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,964,000. Finally, Ritholtz Wealth Management increased its position in Yum! Brands by 7.0% during the fourth quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 2,236 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $300,000 after acquiring an additional 146 shares during the period. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

YUM has been the subject of a number of research reports. Argus raised 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. Loop Capital reduced their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $143.00 to $140.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. TD Cowen restated a “hold” rating and set a $145.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Redburn Atlantic downgraded Yum! Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating and set a $141.00 price objective (down from $153.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $146.24.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of the company’s 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 149,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,474,708.10. This represents a 2.49 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of Yum! Brands stock opened at $125.31 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $34.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.42, a P/E/G ratio of 2.00 and a beta of 1.11. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $133.85 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $133.66. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $122.13 and a 1-year high of $143.20.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.37 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.41 by ($0.04). Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 18.93% and a net margin of 21.13%. The business had revenue of $1.83 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.90 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.44 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.46 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd were issued a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.14%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is 50.09%.

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.