Bahl & Gaynor Inc. Purchases 75 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Bahl & Gaynor Inc. raised its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 5.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,575 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 75 shares during the quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $211,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Yum! Brands by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,441,170 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,038,775,000 after buying an additional 111,147 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in Yum! Brands by 4.2% in 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 acquiring an additional 94,026 shares during the period. Cantillon Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 452,339 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,677,290 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $225,025,000 after purchasing an additional 44,428 shares during the period. Finally, Swiss National Bank grew its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 0.3% in the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 835,800 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $116,770,000 after purchasing an additional 2,800 shares during the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on YUM. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $140.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. TD Securities upped their target price on Yum! Brands from $151.00 to $164.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $156.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $141.00 price target (down previously from $153.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Fourteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $150.65.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.06, for a total transaction of $522,883.90. Following the transaction, 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, VP David Eric Russell sold 5,000 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.66, for a total transaction of $793,300.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 11,960 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,897,573.60. This represents a 29.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.31% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

YUM stock opened at $159.53 on Thursday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $122.13 and a fifty-two week high of $161.28. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $137.81 and its 200 day simple moving average is $136.04. The company has a market cap of $44.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st will be given a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.78%. This is a positive change from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 21st. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 54.41%.

Yum! Brands 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.