Hills Bank & Trust Co Sells 145 Shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Hills Bank & Trust Co reduced its position in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 5.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 2,602 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 145 shares during the period. Hills Bank & Trust Co’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $349,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in YUM. Impact Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Yum! Brands during the fourth quarter valued at about $322,000. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 102,279 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $13,722,000 after buying an additional 2,433 shares during the period. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC now owns 2,664 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $357,000 after buying an additional 69 shares during the period. Achmea Investment Management B.V. increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 8.6% during the fourth quarter. Achmea Investment Management B.V. now owns 35,766 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $4,799,000 after buying an additional 2,846 shares during the period. Finally, Avantax Advisory Services Inc. increased its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 11.5% during the fourth quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 14,259 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,913,000 after buying an additional 1,465 shares during the period. 82.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Yum! Brands Stock Performance

NYSE:YUM opened at $155.09 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $43.29 billion, a PE ratio of 29.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $122.13 and a fifty-two week high of $163.30. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $141.01 and a 200-day moving average price of $137.07.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st were paid a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.83%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. This is a positive change from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. Yum! Brands’s dividend payout ratio is 54.41%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

YUM has been the topic of several analyst reports. TD Securities upped their price target on Yum! Brands from $151.00 to $164.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. TD Cowen reissued a “hold” rating and set a $140.00 price objective on shares of Yum! Brands in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Argus raised Yum! Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $155.00 price objective for the company in a report on Tuesday, December 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered Yum! Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $140.00 to $135.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Yum! Brands from $146.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday. Fifteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $150.95.

Insider Activity

In related news, COO Tracy L. Skeans sold 8,638 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.36, for a total transaction of $1,367,913.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 2,970 shares in the company, valued at $470,329.20. This represents a 74.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 30,604 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 160,296 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,560,800.16. This represents a 16.03 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 48,654 shares of company stock valued at $7,659,176. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.