Cobblestone Capital Advisors LLC NY Increases Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Cobblestone Capital Advisors LLC NY raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 11,093 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 199 shares during the quarter. Cobblestone Capital Advisors LLC NY’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $1,469,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 24.0% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,012,969 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $4,022,648,000 after acquiring an additional 5,607,517 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 23.7% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 18,121,611 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,512,561,000 after acquiring an additional 3,470,883 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter worth $331,831,000. Cantillon Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Yum! Brands during the first quarter valued at about $200,668,000. Finally, Capital International Investors boosted its position in Yum! Brands by 10.2% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 14,669,356 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,033,906,000 after purchasing an additional 1,362,813 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

YUM has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating and issued a $156.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. Evercore ISI lowered Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to an “inline” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $160.00 to $145.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, June 13th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $150.00 price target for the company. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $155.00 to $153.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $150.00 to $154.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $145.00.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

NYSE YUM traded down $0.63 on Friday, hitting $133.87. The company had a trading volume of 1,930,128 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,963,752. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $132.64 and its 200-day moving average price is $135.89. The company has a market capitalization of $37.64 billion, a PE ratio of 23.74, a PEG ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 1.08. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $115.53 and a 12-month high of $143.20.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The restaurant operator reported $1.35 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.33 by $0.02. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 21.96% and a negative return on equity of 18.90%. The firm had revenue of $1.76 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.80 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.41 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.62 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 27th were paid a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.00%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 27th. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.52%.

Yum! Brands announced that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, May 15th that allows the company to repurchase $2.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the restaurant operator to buy up to 5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 6,961 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $131.02, for a total transaction of $912,030.22. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 162,381 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,275,158.62. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,061 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.43, for a total value of $963,332.23. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 165,630 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,596,900.90. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 6,961 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $131.02, for a total transaction of $912,030.22. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 162,381 shares in the company, valued at $21,275,158.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 101,685 shares of company stock worth $13,910,094. 0.31% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.