Jacobs & Co. CA Reduces Stock Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Jacobs & Co. CA lowered its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 0.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 54,338 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 165 shares during the quarter. Jacobs & Co. CA’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $7,099,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. RB Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 9.7% in the 1st quarter. RB Capital Management LLC now owns 4,890 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $580,000 after acquiring an additional 431 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 761,575 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $90,284,000 after purchasing an additional 3,024 shares during the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the 1st quarter worth about $664,000. Moors & Cabot Inc. increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 7.4% in the 1st quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 7,530 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $893,000 after purchasing an additional 517 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 10.8% in the 1st quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 2,862 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $339,000 after purchasing an additional 279 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,756 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.21, for a total transaction of $485,312.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 57,325 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,406,963.25. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Yum! Brands news, VP David Eric Russell sold 9,919 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.63, for a total transaction of $1,285,799.97. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 18,661 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,419,025.43. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,756 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.21, for a total value of $485,312.76. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 57,325 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,406,963.25. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 20,742 shares of company stock valued at $2,734,628 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on YUM. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $141.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 9th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of Yum! Brands from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $150.00 to $135.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $135.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Oppenheimer raised shares of Yum! Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $154.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, January 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $133.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $145.00.

Yum! Brands Trading Up 1.9 %

Yum! Brands stock opened at $137.32 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $38.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.57, a PEG ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.10. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $115.53 and a 12 month high of $143.24. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $134.30 and its 200-day moving average is $128.74.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The restaurant operator reported $1.26 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.39 by ($0.13). Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 17.76% and a net margin of 22.57%. The business had revenue of $2.04 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.11 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.31 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 8th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 21st were given a dividend of $0.67 per share. This is a positive change from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.61. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.95%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 20th. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 47.94%.

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.