Kovack Advisors Inc. Decreases Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (YUM)

Kovack Advisors Inc. lessened its holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 5.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 6,809 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 415 shares during the quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $626,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Legacy Financial Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 54.3% in the third quarter. Legacy Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 2,057 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $187,000 after buying an additional 724 shares during the last quarter. Rossmore Private Capital bought a new stake in Yum! Brands in the third quarter valued at $391,000. Holderness Investments Co. bought a new stake in Yum! Brands in the third quarter valued at $208,000. Meag Munich Ergo Kapitalanlagegesellschaft MBH lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 42.2% in the third quarter. Meag Munich Ergo Kapitalanlagegesellschaft MBH now owns 15,112 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,358,000 after buying an additional 4,485 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Howland Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Yum! Brands by 0.4% in the third quarter. Howland Capital Management LLC now owns 162,136 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $14,740,000 after buying an additional 600 shares during the last quarter. 72.64% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Shares of NYSE YUM opened at $92.74 on Thursday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $76.32 and a fifty-two week high of $95.45. The stock has a market cap of $29.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.26, a P/E/G ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 0.60.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 7th. The restaurant operator reported $0.40 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by ($0.57). Yum! Brands had a net margin of 27.11% and a negative return on equity of 14.19%. The company had revenue of $1.56 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.57 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.96 earnings per share. Yum! Brands’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 3.79 EPS for the current year.

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 14th will be given a $0.42 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 13th. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.81%. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is 45.43%.

In other Yum! Brands news, CFO David W. Gibbs sold 6,410 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.93, for a total value of $576,451.30. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 47,689 shares in the company, valued at $4,288,671.77. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Anthony Lowings sold 2,889 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.93, for a total transaction of $259,807.77. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 36,497 shares in the company, valued at $3,282,175.21. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 49,912 shares of company stock worth $4,639,882. 0.63% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Zacks Investment Research reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $97.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Saturday, November 17th. Gordon Haskett started coverage on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Thursday, October 18th. They set a “hold” rating and a $90.00 price objective on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus cut shares of Yum! Brands from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $94.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, October 23rd. Cowen restated a “buy” rating and set a $100.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a research note on Sunday, December 2nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $94.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. The company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $93.46.

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Yum! Brands Profile

YUM! Brands, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, develops, operates, and franchises quick service restaurants worldwide. It operates in three segments: the KFC Division, the Pizza Hut Division, and the Taco Bell Division. The company operates restaurants under the KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell brands, which specialize in chicken, pizza, and Mexican-style food categories.

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