OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd Decreases Stock Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd lowered its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 43.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,124 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 4,016 shares during the quarter. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $693,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC now owns 2,664 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $357,000 after buying an additional 69 shares during the period. Investment Partners LTD. lifted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Investment Partners LTD. now owns 3,231 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $433,000 after acquiring an additional 72 shares during the period. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. lifted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 1,575 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $211,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares during the period. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC grew its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC now owns 2,165 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $290,000 after purchasing an additional 82 shares during the period. Finally, Anchor Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 7.4% during the 3rd quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 1,329 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $186,000 after purchasing an additional 92 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

YUM opened at $157.58 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $43.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.19, a PEG ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a fifty day moving average of $142.72 and a 200 day moving average of $137.53. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $122.13 and a fifty-two week high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st were issued a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.80%. This is a boost from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 21st. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is 54.41%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. TD Cowen reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $140.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, February 6th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $156.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Wells Fargo & Company upped 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. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $141.00 price target (down previously from $153.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Fifteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $150.95.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 5,293 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.24, for a total transaction of $816,392.32. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 157,893 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,353,416.32. This represents a 3.24 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 8,638 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 6th. The shares were 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 owns 2,970 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $470,329.20. This represents a 74.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 50,132 shares of company stock worth $7,952,685. Corporate 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.