Yum! Shares Rally Amid Better-Than-Expected Q1 Profit, Strength In Chiina

Yum! Brands

issued mixed first-quarter 2014 results Tuesday afternoon, beating on the bottom line but missing slightly on the top line. Traders and investors seem to be focusing on the profit beat; the stock is continuing higher in Tuesday's post-market session. After closing the intraday session up just over 1.9 percent to $77.48, the stock is now, about an hour after the figures were released, trading around $80.64, up another 4 percent from the close. Yum! said quarterly net income totaled $399 million, or $0.87 per share on a diluted basis. The per-share profit figure was up nearly 21 percent from the $0.72 in EPS reported in the first quarter of 2013 and two cents better than the analyst consensus estimate of $0.85. Sales totaled $2.724 billion, up about 7 percent from the $2.535 billion posted in the same quarter last year. Analysts were expecting Yum! to report quarterly sales around $2.8 billion. The company same system sales up 17 percent in the China unit, up 4 percent at KFC, breakeven at both Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, and up 21 percent in the India division. Same-store sales were up 9 percent and 1 percent for the China and KFC units, and down 2 percent and 1 percent at Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, respectively. Chairman and CEO David Novak said, "Yum! Brands is clearly on its way to a strong bounce-back year delivering first-quarter EPS growth of 24%. Operating profit grew 80% in China, prior to foreign currency translation, driven by strong sales and margin growth. Looking ahead, we have significant building blocks in place in China and each of our divisions to drive sales and profit growth this year and beyond."