Prudential Financial Inc. Sells 23,778 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Prudential Financial Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 13.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 148,053 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 23,778 shares during the quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. owned approximately 0.05% of Yum! Brands worth $19,863,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Yum! Brands by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,441,170 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,038,775,000 after buying an additional 111,147 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,355,367 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $315,996,000 after acquiring an additional 94,026 shares during the last quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Yum! Brands by 31.7% during 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 in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Yum! Brands by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,677,290 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $225,025,000 after purchasing an additional 44,428 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi grew its stake in Yum! Brands by 23.8% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 749,895 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $95,792,000 after purchasing an additional 144,406 shares in the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on YUM. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Yum! Brands from $138.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $162.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. 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 boosted their price target on Yum! Brands from $130.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Fifteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $151.79.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of NYSE YUM opened at $158.55 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $145.90 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $138.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $44.25 billion, a PE ratio of 30.37, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $122.13 and a fifty-two week high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared 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 1.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 21st. This is an increase from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is 54.41%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 30,604 shares of the business’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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 160,296 shares in the company, valued at approximately $25,560,800.16. The trade was a 16.03 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 8,638 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief operating officer now owns 2,970 shares in the company, valued at $470,329.20. This represents a 74.41 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 50,132 shares of company stock valued at $7,952,685 over the last quarter. 0.31% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.