Fernwood Investment Management LLC Sells 100 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Fernwood Investment Management LLC lowered its position in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 1.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 10,350 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 100 shares during the period. Fernwood Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $1,389,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,604,632 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,021,194,000 after buying an additional 163,462 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter worth approximately $418,692,000. FMR LLC grew its position in Yum! Brands by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,521,583 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $338,296,000 after acquiring an additional 24,681 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,355,367 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $315,996,000 after acquiring an additional 94,026 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 12.0% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,284,171 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $306,444,000 after acquiring an additional 244,264 shares during the period. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 30,604 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $159.46, for a total transaction of $4,880,113.84. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 160,296 shares in the company, valued at $25,560,800.16. This represents a 16.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 8,638 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.36, for a total transaction of $1,367,913.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 2,970 shares in the company, 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. Insiders sold a total of 50,132 shares of company stock worth $7,952,685 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently commented on YUM shares. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Sanford C. Bernstein cut Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $140.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Guggenheim boosted their target price on Yum! Brands from $155.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating and set a $141.00 price target (down from $153.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $156.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Sixteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $152.24.

Yum! Brands Trading Down 2.5 %

NYSE:YUM opened at $141.32 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $150.91 and a 200 day moving average price of $139.71. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $122.13 and a 12-month high of $163.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $39.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.07, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.90.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Investors of record on Friday, February 21st were given a dividend of $0.71 per share. This is a positive change from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.01%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 54.41%.

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.