Moors & Cabot Inc. Cuts Stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Moors & Cabot Inc. cut its holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 3.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 9,137 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 297 shares during the quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $1,226,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of YUM. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,355,367 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $315,996,000 after purchasing an additional 94,026 shares during the last quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank increased its holdings in Yum! Brands by 15.5% in the 3rd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 127,446 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $17,805,000 after buying an additional 17,133 shares during the period. Cantillon Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Yum! Brands by 31.7% in the 4th quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,880,379 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $252,272,000 after buying an additional 452,339 shares during the period. Forsta AP Fonden boosted its position in Yum! Brands by 5.3% in the 4th quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 110,500 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $14,825,000 after purchasing an additional 5,600 shares in the last quarter. Finally, DJE Kapital AG purchased a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,306,000. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

YUM has been the topic of a number of research reports. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Yum! Brands from $130.00 to $148.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Barclays raised their target price on Yum! Brands from $162.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Cowen reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein lowered Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $140.00 to $135.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Fifteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $150.95.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of YUM opened at $153.50 on Friday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $122.13 and a 12-month high of $163.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $42.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.41, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $140.58 and its 200 day moving average price is $136.91.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Investors of record on Friday, February 21st were given a dividend of $0.71 per share. 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. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.85%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is 54.41%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 160,296 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,560,800.16. This trade represents a 16.03 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 8,638 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.36, for a total value of $1,367,913.68. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 2,970 shares in the company, valued at $470,329.20. The trade was a 74.41 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 48,654 shares of company stock worth $7,659,176 in the last three months. 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.