Farther Finance Advisors LLC Has $237,000 Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Farther Finance Advisors LLC reduced its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 23.9% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,767 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 556 shares during the quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $237,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new position in Yum! Brands during the third quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. boosted its position in Yum! Brands by 52.1% during the fourth quarter. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. now owns 295 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 101 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in Yum! Brands during the third quarter valued at approximately $42,000. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on YUM shares. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. TD Securities upped their price objective on Yum! Brands from $151.00 to $164.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Argus upgraded Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, December 31st. Barclays upped their price objective on Yum! Brands from $162.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their price objective on Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Fifteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Yum! Brands currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $150.95.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 30,604 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was 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 owns 160,296 shares in the company, valued at $25,560,800.16. This trade represents a 16.03 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP David Eric Russell sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s 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 completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 11,960 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,897,573.60. This represents a 29.48 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 50,132 shares of company stock worth $7,952,685 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Yum! Brands stock opened at $157.13 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $142.12 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $137.39. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $122.13 and a one year high of $163.30. The firm has a market cap of $43.85 billion, a PE ratio of 30.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 21st were paid a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 21st. This is a positive change from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.