Panagora Asset Management Inc. Boosts Stock Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. $YUM

Panagora Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM - Free Report) by 161.9% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 36,580 shares of the restaurant operator's stock after purchasing an additional 22,614 shares during the period. Panagora Asset Management Inc.'s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $5,420,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

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Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $602,551,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Yum! Brands in the first quarter worth $97,453,000. Magellan Asset Management Ltd raised its position in Yum! Brands by 35.9% in the second quarter. Magellan Asset Management Ltd now owns 2,306,932 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $341,841,000 after acquiring an additional 609,223 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 1.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 34,109,219 shares of the restaurant operator's stock valued at $5,367,427,000 after acquiring an additional 483,918 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 2,288.1% during the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 502,267 shares of the restaurant operator's stock worth $74,426,000 after purchasing an additional 481,235 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In related news, insider Erika Burkhardt sold 1,269 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $149.37, for a total transaction of $189,550.53. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 64 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,559.68. This trade represents a 95.20% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 24,332 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $149.10, for a total transaction of $3,627,901.20. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 38,146 shares of company stock valued at $5,699,770. 0.33% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on YUM. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $160.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Monday, November 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $177.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Gordon Haskett upgraded Yum! Brands to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on Yum! Brands from $156.00 to $158.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, October 20th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $167.38.

Get Our Latest Stock Analysis on YUM

Yum! Brands Price Performance

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Shares of YUM opened at $148.46 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $147.67 and a 200-day simple moving average of $146.60. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $122.13 and a 1-year high of $163.30. The stock has a market cap of $41.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 0.67.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The restaurant operator reported $1.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $1.98 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.96 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 21.79% and a net margin of 17.95%.Yum! Brands's revenue was up 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.37 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 12th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 2nd will be given a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 2nd. Yum! Brands's dividend payout ratio is currently 55.36%.

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.

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