B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. Cuts Stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. trimmed its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 39.6% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,979 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 1,300 shares during the quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $276,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 111,147 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in Yum! Brands by 3.4% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 3,164,159 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $419,123,000 after acquiring an additional 104,328 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,632,862 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $228,127,000 after purchasing an additional 6,537 shares during the period. Cantillon Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,428,040 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $199,511,000 after purchasing an additional 51,690 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 6.7% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 930,402 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $123,243,000 after purchasing an additional 58,437 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

YUM opened at $132.36 on Friday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $124.76 and a 1-year high of $143.20. The company has a 50-day moving average of $135.27 and a 200-day moving average of $134.33. The company has a market capitalization of $36.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.74, a PEG ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 1.10.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.37 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.41 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $1.83 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.90 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 18.93% and a net margin of 21.13%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.44 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were issued a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.02%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 2nd. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 50.09%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

YUM has been the topic of several research reports. Bank of America cut their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Loop Capital decreased their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $143.00 to $140.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Yum! Brands from $137.00 to $144.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $145.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic lowered Yum! Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Yum! Brands has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $145.94.

Insider Activity

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.06, for a total value of $522,883.90. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 149,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,474,708.10. This trade represents a 2.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In the last three months, insiders sold 17,879 shares of company stock valued at $2,424,167. 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.