CoreFirst Bank & Trust Invests $78,000 in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

CoreFirst Bank & Trust purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 580 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $78,000.

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

Yum! Brands Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:YUM opened at $155.68 on Wednesday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $122.13 and a twelve month high of $163.30. The company has a market cap of $43.45 billion, a PE ratio of 29.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03. The company’s 50 day moving average is $145.25 and its 200 day moving average is $138.18.

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 paid a $0.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.82%. This is a positive change from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 54.41%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on YUM. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $176.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $141.00 price target (down from $153.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded shares of Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $140.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Fifteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $151.79.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 5,293 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.24, for a total transaction of $816,392.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 157,893 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,353,416.32. This trade represents a 3.24 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP David Eric Russell sold 5,000 shares of the business’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 completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 11,960 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,897,573.60. This trade represents a 29.48 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 50,132 shares of company stock valued at $7,952,685 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

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.