Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) COO Sells $1,367,913.68 in Stock

Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 8,638 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.36, for a total transaction of $1,367,913.68. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 2,970 shares in the company, valued at $470,329.20. This represents a 74.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 2.1 %

Shares of NYSE:YUM opened at $162.67 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $45.40 billion, a PE ratio of 31.16, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $138.84 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $136.37. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $122.13 and a twelve month high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Investors of record on Friday, February 21st were paid a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.75%. This is a positive change from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 21st. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is currently 54.41%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Yum! Brands

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter valued at $418,692,000. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 20.4% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,545,872 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $475,714,000 after purchasing an additional 601,361 shares in the last quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 31.7% in the 4th quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,880,379 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $252,272,000 after purchasing an additional 452,339 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter valued at about $59,289,000. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter valued at about $43,944,000. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on YUM shares. Argus raised shares of Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein cut shares of Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $140.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. TD Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $140.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Yum! Brands from $130.00 to $148.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Fourteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $150.42.

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.