Xponance Inc. Buys 1,343 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Xponance Inc. grew its stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 2.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 50,273 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,343 shares during the period. Xponance Inc.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $6,745,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of YUM. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 1.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,441,170 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,038,775,000 after acquiring an additional 111,147 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,355,367 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $315,996,000 after acquiring an additional 94,026 shares in the last quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC boosted its stake 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 worth $252,272,000 after acquiring an additional 452,339 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 44,428 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 23.8% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 749,895 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $95,792,000 after acquiring an additional 144,406 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of YUM stock opened at $157.58 on Thursday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $122.13 and a 12 month high of $163.30. The stock has a market cap of $43.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.19, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $142.72 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $137.53.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 21st were issued a dividend of $0.71 per share. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 21st. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 54.41%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently commented on YUM. Argus raised shares of Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, December 31st. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $176.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded shares of Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $140.00 to $135.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. TD Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $140.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Fifteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $150.95.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 30,604 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were 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 $25,560,800.16. This represents a 16.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP David Eric Russell sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.66, for a total transaction of $793,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 50,132 shares of company stock valued at $7,952,685. 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.