2,850 Shares in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Purchased by Heritage Trust Co

Heritage Trust Co bought a new position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 2,850 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $382,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of YUM. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,604,632 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,021,194,000 after acquiring an additional 163,462 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter valued at about $418,692,000. FMR LLC grew its position in Yum! Brands by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,521,583 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $338,296,000 after purchasing an additional 24,681 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 4.2% in the fourth 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. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 12.0% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,284,171 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $306,444,000 after buying an additional 244,264 shares during the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 30,604 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $159.46, for a total value of $4,880,113.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 160,296 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,560,800.16. This represents a 16.03 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Erika Burkhardt sold 597 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.07, for a total value of $94,964.79. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 64 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,180.48. This trade represents a 90.32 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 50,132 shares of company stock valued at $7,952,685 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE YUM opened at $144.97 on Friday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $122.13 and a 52-week high of $163.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $40.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.77, a PEG ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.90. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $152.06 and its 200 day simple moving average is $140.02.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 21st were issued a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.96%. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 21st. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 54.41%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on YUM. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Yum! Brands from $138.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on Yum! Brands from $176.00 to $174.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on Yum! Brands from $130.00 to $148.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Guggenheim upped their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $155.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Sixteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $152.24.

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.