8,441 Shares in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Purchased by Allstate Corp

Allstate Corp bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 8,441 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $1,132,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in YUM. DnB Asset Management AS raised its holdings in Yum! Brands by 4.9% during the fourth quarter. DnB Asset Management AS now owns 411,578 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $55,217,000 after purchasing an additional 19,148 shares in the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 6.8% during the 4th quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 271,785 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $36,463,000 after purchasing an additional 17,222 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter worth $418,692,000. Caisse Des Depots ET Consignations acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the fourth quarter valued at $683,000. Finally, NEOS Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 30.7% in the fourth quarter. NEOS Investment Management LLC now owns 15,880 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,130,000 after buying an additional 3,731 shares during the period. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

NYSE YUM opened at $155.72 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $147.14 and a 200-day simple moving average of $138.69. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $122.13 and a 52-week high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 21st were given a $0.71 dividend. This is an increase from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 21st. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.82%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 54.41%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on YUM. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $141.00 target price (down from $153.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Friday, January 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $138.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Yum! Brands from $130.00 to $148.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Fifteen investment 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, Yum! Brands currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $151.79.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In other Yum! Brands news, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 8,638 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.36, for a total value of $1,367,913.68. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 2,970 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $470,329.20. This represents a 74.41 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP David Eric Russell sold 5,000 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.66, for a total value of $793,300.00. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 11,960 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,897,573.60. This represents a 29.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 50,132 shares of company stock valued at $7,952,685 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

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.