Westbourne Investment Advisors Inc. Makes New $207,000 Investment in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Westbourne Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund purchased 1,585 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $207,000.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. RB Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 9.7% during the 1st quarter. RB Capital Management LLC now owns 4,890 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $580,000 after purchasing an additional 431 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 761,575 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $90,284,000 after buying an additional 3,024 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 1st quarter valued at $664,000. Moors & Cabot Inc. boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 7.4% in the 1st quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 7,530 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $893,000 after buying an additional 517 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 10.8% in the 1st quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 2,862 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $339,000 after buying an additional 279 shares in the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

In related news, VP David Eric Russell sold 9,919 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the vice president now owns 18,661 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,419,025.43. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Yum! Brands news, VP David Eric Russell sold 9,919 shares of Yum! Brands 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 transaction, the vice president now directly owns 18,661 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,419,025.43. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,756 shares of Yum! Brands 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 57,325 shares in the company, valued at $7,406,963.25. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 20,742 shares of company stock valued at $2,734,628 in the last 90 days. 0.31% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of YUM stock traded up $1.20 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $138.52. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 460,461 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,920,832. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $134.30 and its 200-day simple moving average is $128.74. The company has a market capitalization of $38.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.79, a PEG ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.10. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $115.53 and a fifty-two week high of $143.24.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The restaurant operator reported $1.26 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by ($0.13). The business had revenue of $2.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.11 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 22.57% and a negative return on equity of 17.76%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.31 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.72 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 8th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 21st were issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. This is an increase from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.61. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 20th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.93%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.94%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company lowered Yum! Brands from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $150.00 to $135.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Citigroup upped their price objective on Yum! Brands from $164.00 to $166.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 8th. Guggenheim increased their price target on Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $135.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $141.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 9th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $145.00.

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.