CIBC Asset Management Inc Increases Stock Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 2.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 73,815 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,718 shares during the quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $9,893,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of YUM. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the third quarter valued at about $29,000. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 52.1% in the fourth quarter. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. now owns 295 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 101 shares during the period. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in Yum! Brands in the third quarter valued at about $42,000. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates lifted its position in Yum! Brands by 649.0% in the fourth quarter. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates now owns 367 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $49,000 after buying an additional 318 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Albion Financial Group UT lifted its position in Yum! Brands by 24.7% in the fourth quarter. Albion Financial Group UT now owns 566 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $76,000 after buying an additional 112 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

YUM has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Bank of America decreased their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. TD Securities upped their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $151.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Thirteen research 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, Yum! Brands presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $147.37.

Insider Activity at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.06, for a total value of $522,883.90. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,385 shares in the company, valued at $20,474,708.10. This represents a 2.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.31% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE:YUM opened at $147.27 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $133.49 and its 200 day moving average price is $134.64. The stock has a market cap of $41.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.10. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $122.13 and a fifty-two week high of $149.30.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Investors of record on Friday, February 21st will be issued a $0.71 dividend. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 21st. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.93%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.34%.

Yum! Brands Company 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.