Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC Trims Stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC decreased its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 0.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 40,478 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 164 shares during the period. Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $5,431,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sei Investments Co. lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 4.4% in the second quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 142,572 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $18,884,000 after purchasing an additional 6,040 shares during the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.7% in the 2nd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 11,766 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,559,000 after buying an additional 308 shares during the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 7.8% during the second quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 38,449 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $5,093,000 after buying an additional 2,784 shares during the period. Public Sector Pension Investment Board raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 70.8% during the second quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 10,853 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,438,000 after acquiring an additional 4,499 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Evergreen Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 7.0% in the second quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 2,744 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $363,000 after acquiring an additional 180 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

In related 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 149,385 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,474,708.10. This represents a 2.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.31% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

YUM has been the subject of several research reports. Argus upgraded shares of Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 price objective for the company in a report on Tuesday, December 31st. Redburn Atlantic lowered shares of Yum! Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $140.00 to $135.00 in a report on Wednesday. Bank of America lowered their target price on Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price target on Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $144.89.

Yum! Brands Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of YUM opened at $127.07 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $35.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.75, a P/E/G ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 1.11. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $133.26 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $133.55. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $122.13 and a 12 month high of $143.20.

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

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.11%. Yum! Brands’s 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.