Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Holdings Lowered by Interchange Capital Partners LLC

Interchange Capital Partners LLC lowered its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 2.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 7,565 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 228 shares during the quarter. Interchange Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $1,015,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. ICW Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. ICW Investment Advisors LLC now owns 17,265 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $2,316,000 after acquiring an additional 698 shares in the last quarter. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 94.9% during the 4th quarter. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE now owns 3,388 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $455,000 after purchasing an additional 1,650 shares during the period. Richwood Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 12.4% during the 4th quarter. Richwood Investment Advisors LLC now owns 3,398 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $456,000 after purchasing an additional 376 shares during the period. Fox Run Management L.L.C. acquired a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter valued at $1,101,000. Finally, KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS acquired a new position in shares of Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter valued at $13,181,000. 82.37% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. 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 note on Tuesday, December 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Sanford C. Bernstein cut Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $140.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Yum! Brands from $138.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on Yum! Brands from $162.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Fifteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Yum! Brands has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $151.79.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Yum! Brands news, 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 transaction of $793,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 11,960 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,897,573.60. This represents a 29.48 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 30,604 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.46, for a total value of $4,880,113.84. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 160,296 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,560,800.16. This represents a 16.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 50,132 shares of company stock valued at $7,952,685. Corporate insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE YUM opened at $156.75 on Monday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $122.13 and a 12-month high of $163.30. The stock has a market cap of $43.75 billion, a PE ratio of 30.03, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a 50-day moving average of $143.99 and a 200 day moving average of $137.88.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

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

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.