Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Shares Purchased by Linscomb Wealth Inc.

Linscomb Wealth Inc. boosted its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 2.7% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 24,644 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 649 shares during the period. Linscomb Wealth Inc.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $3,306,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Toronto Dominion Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 15.5% during the third quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 127,446 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $17,805,000 after purchasing an additional 17,133 shares during the last quarter. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd acquired a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 3rd quarter worth about $1,262,000. Forsta AP Fonden boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 5.3% in the 4th quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 110,500 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $14,825,000 after buying an additional 5,600 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its holdings in Yum! Brands by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 689,631 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $96,348,000 after buying an additional 20,966 shares during the period. Finally, Infusive Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 15.1% during the 3rd quarter. Infusive Asset Management Inc. now owns 43,419 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $6,066,000 after acquiring an additional 5,684 shares during the last quarter. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.06, for a total value of $522,883.90. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 149,385 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,474,708.10. The trade was a 2.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on YUM. TD Securities boosted their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $151.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Redburn Atlantic cut shares of Yum! Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $140.00 target price (down from $158.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. UBS Group boosted their price target on Yum! Brands from $156.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Argus upgraded Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, December 31st. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $147.37.

Yum! Brands Trading Up 1.6 %

NYSE YUM opened at $153.91 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $135.91 and its 200-day simple moving average is $135.47. The stock has a market cap of $42.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.49, a PEG ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.11. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $122.13 and a 52 week high of $155.18.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 21st will be given a $0.71 dividend. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 21st. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 54.41%.

Yum! Brands 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.