Achmea Investment Management B.V. Acquires 2,846 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Achmea Investment Management B.V. lifted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 8.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 35,766 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,846 shares during the quarter. Achmea Investment Management B.V.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $4,799,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Investment Partners LTD. boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Investment Partners LTD. now owns 3,231 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $433,000 after purchasing an additional 72 shares during the period. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 5.0% in the 4th quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 1,575 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $211,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares during the period. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC now owns 2,165 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $290,000 after purchasing an additional 82 shares during the period. Anchor Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 7.4% in the 3rd quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 1,329 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $186,000 after purchasing an additional 92 shares during the period. Finally, Atria Investments Inc boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 24,937 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $3,346,000 after purchasing an additional 92 shares during the period. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently issued reports on YUM shares. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. UBS Group upped their target price on Yum! Brands from $156.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. 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 research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their target price for the company from $140.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Yum! Brands from $130.00 to $148.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Fifteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $150.95.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of YUM opened at $155.09 on Friday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $122.13 and a 12-month high of $163.30. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $141.01 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $137.05. The stock has a market cap of $43.29 billion, a PE ratio of 29.71, a PEG ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 21st were issued a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.83%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 54.41%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Erika Burkhardt sold 597 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $159.07, for a total value of $94,964.79. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 64 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,180.48. This represents a 90.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.06, for a total value of $522,883.90. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,474,708.10. The trade was a 2.49 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 48,654 shares of company stock valued at $7,659,176 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

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.