Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) Shares Acquired by Banco Santander S.A.

Banco Santander S.A. increased its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 4.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 22,279 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after acquiring an additional 976 shares during the period. Banco Santander S.A.’s holdings in Yum! Brands were worth $2,989,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Investment Partners LTD. lifted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Investment Partners LTD. now owns 3,231 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $433,000 after purchasing an additional 72 shares during the period. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. increased its holdings in Yum! Brands by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 1,575 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $211,000 after buying an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC lifted its position in shares of Yum! Brands by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC now owns 2,165 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $290,000 after acquiring an additional 82 shares during the period. Anchor Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Yum! Brands by 7.4% during the 3rd quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 1,329 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $186,000 after acquiring an additional 92 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Atria Investments Inc grew its holdings in shares of Yum! Brands by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 24,937 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $3,346,000 after acquiring an additional 92 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.37% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

YUM has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Yum! Brands from $140.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Yum! Brands from $154.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Yum! Brands from $156.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $140.00 price target (down from $158.00) on shares of Yum! Brands in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Yum! Brands from $160.00 to $176.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Fourteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Yum! Brands has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $150.42.

Yum! Brands Stock Up 2.1 %

Shares of YUM opened at $162.67 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $45.40 billion, a PE ratio of 31.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.03. The company’s fifty day moving average is $138.84 and its two-hundred day moving average is $136.38. Yum! Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $122.13 and a fifty-two week high of $163.30.

Yum! Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 21st were given a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 21st. This is an increase from Yum! Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. Yum! Brands’s payout ratio is 54.41%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Yum! Brands news, VP David Eric Russell sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.66, for a total transaction of $793,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 11,960 shares in the company, valued at $1,897,573.60. The trade was a 29.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO David W. Gibbs sold 3,815 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.06, for a total transaction of $522,883.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,385 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,474,708.10. This represents a 2.49 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 48,654 shares of company stock worth $7,659,176 over the last three months. 0.31% of the stock is 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.