Willner & Heller LLC Sells 269 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Willner & Heller LLC reduced its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 9.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,475 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 269 shares during the period. Willner & Heller LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $332,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in Yum! Brands by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 71,638 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $9,489,000 after purchasing an additional 1,214 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 6.7% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 930,402 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $123,243,000 after purchasing an additional 58,437 shares during the last quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the second quarter valued at $241,000. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 3.4% in the second quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 38,365 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $5,082,000 after buying an additional 1,269 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blair William & Co. IL lifted its position in Yum! Brands by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 38,585 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $5,111,000 after buying an additional 282 shares in the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.06, for a total value of $522,883.90. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 149,385 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,474,708.10. The trade was a 2.49 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

YUM has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Argus raised shares of Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 31st. Bank of America reduced their price objective on Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Redburn Atlantic cut Yum! Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price target on Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $146.24.

Yum! Brands Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of Yum! Brands stock opened at $125.31 on Monday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $122.13 and a 12 month high of $143.20. The company has a market capitalization of $34.97 billion, a PE ratio of 23.42, a PEG ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 1.11. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $133.85 and its 200 day simple moving average is $133.63.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last released its quarterly earnings data 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). Yum! Brands had a net margin of 21.13% and a negative return on equity of 18.93%. The business had revenue of $1.83 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.90 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.44 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were issued a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 2nd. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.