Independent Advisor Alliance Boosts Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Independent Advisor Alliance boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 2.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 7,180 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 176 shares during the quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $963,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of YUM. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new position in Yum! Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC bought a new position in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 52.1% during the 4th 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 bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the 3rd quarter worth $42,000. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 30,604 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.46, for a total value of $4,880,113.84. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 160,296 shares in the company, valued at $25,560,800.16. The trade was a 16.03 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP David Eric Russell sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.66, for a total value of $793,300.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 11,960 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,897,573.60. The trade was a 29.48 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 48,654 shares of company stock valued at $7,659,176 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on YUM. Barclays upped their price target on Yum! Brands from $162.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $130.00 to $148.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Cowen restated a “hold” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $146.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Fifteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $150.95.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of YUM stock opened at $155.09 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $43.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.71, a PEG ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $141.01 and its 200-day moving average price is $137.07. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $122.13 and a one year high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st were given a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.83%. This is an increase from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 21st. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is presently 54.41%.

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.