Paget Leonard Alves Sells 6,309 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Stock

Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Director Paget Leonard Alves sold 6,309 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $136.19, for a total transaction of $859,222.71. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

Yum! Brands Price Performance

YUM opened at $135.91 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $38.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.10, a PEG ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 1.07. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $115.53 and a fifty-two week high of $143.20. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $138.11 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $131.92.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The restaurant operator reported $1.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.20 by ($0.05). The firm had revenue of $1.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.71 billion. Yum! Brands had a negative return on equity of 18.64% and a net margin of 22.92%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.06 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.67 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Williams Jones Wealth Management LLC. lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 3.9% in the 1st quarter. Williams Jones Wealth Management LLC. now owns 13,537 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,877,000 after purchasing an additional 509 shares during the period. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 3.2% during the 1st quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. now owns 6,895 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $956,000 after acquiring an additional 213 shares during the period. Pointe Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 25.6% during the 1st quarter. Pointe Capital Management LLC now owns 1,962 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $272,000 after acquiring an additional 400 shares during the period. NorthRock Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Yum! Brands during the 1st quarter valued at $203,000. Finally, Sei Investments Co. lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 26.3% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 136,532 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $18,930,000 after acquiring an additional 28,464 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $144.00 to $148.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $133.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $166.00 to $162.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of Yum! Brands from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $150.00 to $135.00 in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Finally, Guggenheim lifted their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $145.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $143.53.

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.