Griffin Asset Management Inc. Reduces Stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Griffin Asset Management Inc. trimmed its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 8.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 9,073 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 815 shares during the period. Griffin Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $1,217,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in YUM. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the third quarter worth approximately $29,000. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. increased its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 957.1% in the third quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. now owns 222 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 201 shares in the last quarter. Kimelman & Baird LLC bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the 2nd quarter valued at $37,000. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL bought a new position in Yum! Brands in the 2nd quarter worth $39,000. Finally, Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in Yum! Brands in the 3rd quarter worth $42,000. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on YUM shares. Morgan Stanley restated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $140.00 price objective (down from $158.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Argus raised shares of Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $140.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $141.00 price target (down from $153.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $144.89.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 2.0 %

Shares of NYSE YUM opened at $130.79 on Tuesday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $122.13 and a 52 week high of $143.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $36.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 1.11. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $132.96 and a 200-day simple moving average of $133.59.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.37 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.41 by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $1.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.44 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.46 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.05%. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is currently 50.09%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 149,385 shares in the company, valued at $20,474,708.10. This represents a 2.49 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

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.