West Tower Group LLC Makes New $416,000 Investment in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

West Tower Group LLC bought a new position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 3,100 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $416,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of YUM. Cantillon Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 31.7% in the fourth quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,880,379 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $252,272,000 after acquiring an additional 452,339 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter worth about $59,289,000. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 140.3% in the fourth quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 437,625 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $58,712,000 after acquiring an additional 255,495 shares during the last quarter. Anchor Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,098,000. Finally, Amundi raised its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 23.8% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 749,895 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $95,792,000 after buying an additional 144,406 shares during the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 5,293 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.24, for a total transaction of $816,392.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 157,893 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,353,416.32. This represents a 3.24 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, VP David Eric Russell sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.66, for a total value of $793,300.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 11,960 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,897,573.60. This trade represents a 29.48 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 50,132 shares of company stock valued at $7,952,685 in the last quarter. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

Shares of YUM opened at $157.13 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $142.12 and a 200 day simple moving average of $137.39. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $122.13 and a 52-week high of $163.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.85 billion, a PE ratio of 30.10, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 21st were given a dividend of $0.71 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.81%. This is an increase from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is 54.41%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein cut shares of Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $140.00 to $135.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $176.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $141.00 target price (down previously from $153.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on Yum! Brands from $130.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Fifteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $150.95.

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.