Washington Trust Bank Trims Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Washington Trust Bank trimmed its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 10.0% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,800 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 200 shares during the quarter. Washington Trust Bank’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $251,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of YUM. Norden Group LLC acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands in the first quarter valued at approximately $243,000. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp raised its position in Yum! Brands by 1.1% in the first quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 58,072 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $8,052,000 after purchasing an additional 658 shares during the period. Manchester Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 165.7% in the 1st quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 186 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 116 shares during the period. Duality Advisers LP raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 32.1% in the 1st quarter. Duality Advisers LP now owns 17,908 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,483,000 after buying an additional 4,355 shares during the period. Finally, Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 41.6% in the 1st quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 8,296 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,150,000 after buying an additional 2,438 shares during the period. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Yum! Brands

In related news, insider Scott Catlett sold 8,234 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.79, for a total value of $1,134,562.86. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 29,159 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,017,818.61. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other Yum! Brands news, insider Scott Catlett sold 8,234 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.79, for a total value of $1,134,562.86. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 29,159 shares in the company, valued at $4,017,818.61. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Weir Mirian M. Graddick sold 1,309 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.40, for a total value of $179,856.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 1,233 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $169,414.20. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 30,622 shares of company stock valued at $4,172,740. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently commented on the company. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on Yum! Brands from $150.00 to $154.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Evercore ISI cut Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to an “inline” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $160.00 to $145.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Yum! Brands from $155.00 to $153.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Yum! Brands from $137.00 to $144.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Finally, Bank of America decreased their target price on Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Eleven 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 has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $145.94.

Yum! Brands Trading Up 2.0 %

Shares of YUM opened at $137.06 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $134.23 and its 200 day simple moving average is $134.81. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $123.60 and a twelve month high of $143.20. The firm has a market capitalization of $38.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.10.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.37 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.41 by ($0.04). Yum! Brands had a net margin of 21.13% and a negative return on equity of 18.93%. The company had revenue of $1.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.90 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.44 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 27th were given a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.96%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 27th. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is 50.09%.

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.