Canandaigua National Bank & Trust Co. Trims Stock Position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Canandaigua National Bank & Trust Co. decreased its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 4.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,125 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 387 shares during the quarter. Canandaigua National Bank & Trust Co.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $1,090,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Legacy Financial Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Yum! Brands by 2.2% in the 2nd quarter. Legacy Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 3,460 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $458,000 after purchasing an additional 76 shares in the last quarter. Diversified Trust Co lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 3,321 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $464,000 after purchasing an additional 79 shares during the period. Meeder Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Yum! Brands by 43.6% during the second quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 270 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 82 shares in the last quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC grew its position in Yum! Brands by 7.4% during the third quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 1,329 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $186,000 after buying an additional 92 shares during the period. Finally, Occidental Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Yum! Brands by 2.5% in the third quarter. Occidental Asset Management LLC now owns 3,880 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $542,000 after buying an additional 96 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on YUM. Loop Capital dropped their target price on Yum! Brands from $143.00 to $140.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Redburn Atlantic lowered Yum! Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Argus raised shares of Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, December 31st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $137.00 to $144.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Yum! Brands currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $146.00.

Yum! Brands Stock Down 2.4 %

Shares of Yum! Brands stock opened at $130.18 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $36.33 billion, a PE ratio of 24.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 1.11. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $124.76 and a 52 week high of $143.20. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $135.32 and its 200-day simple moving average is $134.03.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The restaurant operator reported $1.37 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.41 by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $1.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.90 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 21.13% and a negative return on equity of 18.93%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.44 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Yum! Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were paid a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.06%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 2nd. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 50.09%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.06, for a total transaction of $522,883.90. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 149,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,474,708.10. This represents a 2.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 17,879 shares of company stock valued at $2,424,167. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.