Mechanics Bank Trust Department Grows Stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Mechanics Bank Trust Department increased its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 13,812 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 500 shares during the period. Mechanics Bank Trust Department’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $1,930,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 24.0% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,012,969 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $4,022,648,000 after buying an additional 5,607,517 shares during the period. Capital World Investors boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 23.7% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 18,121,611 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,512,561,000 after buying an additional 3,470,883 shares during the period. Capital International Investors boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 10.2% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 14,669,356 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,033,906,000 after buying an additional 1,362,813 shares during the period. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.1% during the first quarter. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP now owns 5,939,663 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $823,534,000 after buying an additional 121,285 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc boosted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 3.4% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 3,164,159 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $419,123,000 after buying an additional 104,328 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

YUM has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating and set a $156.00 target price on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Evercore ISI lowered Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to an “inline” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $160.00 to $145.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on Yum! Brands from $143.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $137.00 to $144.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Yum! Brands from $150.00 to $154.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Yum! Brands presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $145.25.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE:YUM opened at $134.02 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $37.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 1.08. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $115.53 and a 52 week high of $143.20. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $135.24 and a 200 day moving average of $135.36.

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The restaurant operator reported $1.35 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.33 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.76 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.80 billion. Yum! Brands had a net margin of 21.96% and a negative return on equity of 18.90%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.41 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Yum! Brands, Inc. will post 5.61 EPS for the current year.

Yum! Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 27th were issued a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.00%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 27th. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.08%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,005 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction on Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.43, for a total value of $941,682.15. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 155,883 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,955,351.69. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Yum! Brands news, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 7,005 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction on Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.43, for a total value of $941,682.15. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 155,883 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,955,351.69. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 6,961 shares of Yum! Brands stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $131.02, for a total transaction of $912,030.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 162,381 shares in the company, valued at $21,275,158.62. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 101,629 shares of company stock valued at $13,888,443. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.