ING Groep NV Sells 1,960 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

ING Groep NV reduced its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 5.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 35,726 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 1,960 shares during the quarter. ING Groep NV’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $4,793,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Toronto Dominion Bank lifted 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 purchasing an additional 17,133 shares during the last quarter. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,262,000. Forsta AP Fonden lifted its holdings 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 during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 689,631 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $96,348,000 after purchasing an additional 20,966 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Infusive Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 15.1% in the 3rd quarter. Infusive Asset Management Inc. now owns 43,419 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $6,066,000 after purchasing an additional 5,684 shares during the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:YUM opened at $148.51 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $134.35 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $135.04. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $122.13 and a fifty-two week high of $151.29. The stock has a market capitalization of $41.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 1.10.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 21st will be given a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.91%. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 21st. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is 54.41%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on YUM shares. Oppenheimer upped their price target on Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. TD Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $140.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “equal weight” rating and set a $140.00 price target (down from $158.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Loop Capital cut their price target on Yum! Brands from $143.00 to $140.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on Yum! Brands from $156.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $147.37.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.06, for a total transaction of $522,883.90. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 149,385 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,474,708.10. This represents a 2.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 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.