First County Bank CT Trims Holdings in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

First County Bank CT trimmed its stake in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 27.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,904 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 725 shares during the quarter. First County Bank CT’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $255,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Diversified Trust Co grew its stake in Yum! Brands by 30.3% during the fourth quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 4,327 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $581,000 after acquiring an additional 1,006 shares in the last quarter. Pensionfund Sabic raised its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 40.7% in the fourth quarter. Pensionfund Sabic now owns 12,100 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,623,000 after buying an additional 3,500 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Yum! Brands by 50.5% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 5,168 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $693,000 after buying an additional 1,735 shares during the period. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its position in Yum! Brands by 59.3% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 658 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $88,000 after buying an additional 245 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Global Wealth Strategies & Associates increased its stake in Yum! Brands by 649.0% in the 4th quarter. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates now owns 367 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $49,000 after acquiring an additional 318 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on YUM shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price target on Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Bank of America dropped their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $147.00 to $145.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Argus upgraded shares of Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 target price for the company in a research report on Tuesday, December 31st. Finally, TD Cowen restated a “hold” rating and set a $145.00 price target on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $146.78.

Insider Buying and Selling at Yum! Brands

In other news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $137.06, for a total transaction of $522,883.90. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,474,708.10. The trade was a 2.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders sold 17,879 shares of company stock valued at $2,424,167 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

NYSE:YUM opened at $128.61 on Wednesday. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $124.76 and a fifty-two week high of $143.20. The firm has a market cap of $35.89 billion, a PE ratio of 24.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 1.11. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $135.21 and a 200-day moving average price of $133.99.

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

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd were issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.08%. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 50.09%.

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.