Northern Financial Advisors Inc Sells 370 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Northern Financial Advisors Inc lessened its stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 9.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 3,704 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 370 shares during the quarter. Northern Financial Advisors Inc’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $497,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new position in Yum! Brands during the third quarter valued at approximately $29,000. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. grew its stake in Yum! Brands by 957.1% in the 3rd quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. now owns 222 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 201 shares during the last quarter. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. raised its holdings in Yum! Brands by 52.1% in the 4th quarter. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. now owns 295 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $40,000 after acquiring an additional 101 shares during the period. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in Yum! Brands during the 3rd quarter worth $42,000. Finally, Global Wealth Strategies & Associates boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 649.0% during the fourth quarter. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates now owns 367 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $49,000 after acquiring an additional 318 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on YUM. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Yum! Brands from $156.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “equal weight” rating and set a $140.00 price target (down from $158.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Barclays raised 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. Bank of America cut their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Redburn Atlantic lowered shares of Yum! Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $147.37.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

Shares of YUM stock opened at $148.92 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $132.90 and its 200 day simple moving average is $134.30. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $122.13 and a one year high of $149.30. The firm has a market cap of $41.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.53, a P/E/G ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.10.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st will be issued a $0.71 dividend. This is a positive change from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 21st. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.91%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 51.34%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.06, for a total transaction of $522,883.90. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,474,708.10. This represents a 2.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.