Fiduciary Group LLC Takes Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Fiduciary Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 1,544 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $202,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Deutsche Bank AG boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 121.8% in the third quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 1,819,809 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $227,367,000 after purchasing an additional 999,443 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 79.0% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,208,137 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $150,945,000 after buying an additional 533,321 shares during the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 129.5% during the 3rd quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 769,543 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $96,147,000 after acquiring an additional 434,284 shares during the last quarter. J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at about $36,663,000. Finally, Sustainable Growth Advisers LP raised its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP now owns 5,766,650 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $720,485,000 after purchasing an additional 210,238 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Shares of YUM opened at $143.18 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $40.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 1.10. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $138.15 and its 200-day moving average is $131.20. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $115.53 and a one year high of $143.24.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 the consensus estimate of $2.11 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 17.76% and a net margin of 22.57%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.31 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on YUM. Barclays lowered their price objective on Yum! Brands from $146.00 to $144.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 8th. Argus reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $133.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $135.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, January 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of Yum! Brands from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $150.00 to $135.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $144.75.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,078 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.37, for a total transaction of $979,382.86. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 172,128 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,817,351.36. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, VP David Eric Russell sold 9,919 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.63, for a total value of $1,285,799.97. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 18,661 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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 7,078 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.37, for a total transaction of $979,382.86. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 172,128 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,817,351.36. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 24,064 shares of company stock worth $3,228,698 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

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.