Cerity Partners LLC Lowers Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Cerity Partners LLC cut its holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 5.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 103,531 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 6,397 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $13,972,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new position in Yum! Brands in the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. WealthTrak Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the 4th quarter worth approximately $33,000. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 52.1% during 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $42,000. 82.37% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently issued reports on YUM shares. Barclays upped their price objective on Yum! Brands from $162.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Yum! Brands from $138.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. UBS Group boosted their target price 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, Cowen reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Sixteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $152.24.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Yum! Brands news, insider Erika Burkhardt sold 597 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $159.07, for a total value of $94,964.79. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 64 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,180.48. This trade represents a 90.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 30,604 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.46, for a total value of $4,880,113.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 160,296 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,560,800.16. This trade represents a 16.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 50,132 shares of company stock worth $7,952,685 in the last three months. 0.31% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Yum! Brands Trading Up 2.9 %

YUM opened at $145.51 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $40.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.88, a PEG ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.90. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $122.13 and a 12-month high of $163.30. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $151.51 and its 200-day simple moving average is $139.86.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Investors of record on Friday, February 21st were paid a dividend of $0.71 per share. 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 dividend yield of 1.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 21st. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is 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.