Westbourne Investment Advisors Inc. Acquires Shares of 1,585 Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Westbourne Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 1,585 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $207,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 59.5% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 531,103 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $69,596,000 after purchasing an additional 198,069 shares in the last quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in Yum! Brands by 4.2% during the 3rd quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 5,689 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $711,000 after buying an additional 229 shares in the last quarter. Adviser Investments LLC grew its holdings in Yum! Brands by 13.8% during the 3rd quarter. Adviser Investments LLC now owns 1,710 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $214,000 after buying an additional 207 shares in the last quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System boosted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 1,196,411 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $149,480,000 after purchasing an additional 28,507 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 72.6% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 65,775 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $8,218,000 after acquiring an additional 27,674 shares during the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Shares of YUM stock traded up $1.20 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $138.52. 460,461 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,920,832. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $134.30 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $128.74. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $115.53 and a one year high of $143.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $38.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.79, a P/E/G ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.10.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 7th. The restaurant operator reported $1.26 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by ($0.13). The company had revenue of $2.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.11 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 22.57% and a negative return on equity of 17.76%. Yum! Brands’s revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.31 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.72 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 21st were issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 20th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.93%. This is an increase from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.61. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 47.94%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,067 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.34, for a total transaction of $963,514.78. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 175,377 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,910,900.18. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, VP David Eric Russell sold 9,919 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.63, for a total transaction of $1,285,799.97. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 18,661 shares in the company, valued at $2,419,025.43. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,067 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.34, for a total transaction of $963,514.78. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 175,377 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,910,900.18. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 20,742 shares of company stock worth $2,734,628. 0.31% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

YUM has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Oppenheimer upgraded Yum! Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $154.00 price target on the stock in a report on Friday, January 5th. Guggenheim increased their price objective on Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Barclays dropped their price objective on Yum! Brands from $146.00 to $144.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Yum! Brands from $133.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on Yum! Brands from $164.00 to $166.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $145.00.

Yum! Brands 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.