Yum! Brands Reports In line Q4 Revenue, Misses On EPS

Yum! Brands, Inc. YUM reported results Wednesday for its fourth quarter ended December 27, 2014.

Revenue came in at $3.997 billion, a 4 percent decline from the prior year period and in line analyst estimates of $3.97 billion.

The company posted an operating loss of $43 million compared to a profit of $574 million in the prior year period.

A non-cash, Special Items net charge of $361 million related to the write-down of Little Sheep assets was recorded in the fourth quarter. This charge impacted reported EPS by $0.80 for the full year.

EPS excluding Special Items was $0.61, below estimates of $0.66 and a decline of 29 percent compared to the year-ago period.

Reported EPS was $(0.20) for the quarter and $2.32 for the full year of 2014.

For China Same-Store-Sales growth, the company reported a 16 decrease percent in the fourth quarter and a 5 percent decrease the full year of 2014. Sales in China “were significantly impacted by adverse publicity in July surrounding improper food handling practices by a former supplier,” according to the press release.

Greg Creed, CEO, said “We are committed to restoring our track record of delivering at least 10 percent annual EPS growth year after year. I am confident we will do this in 2015 as our China business recovers and we sustain positive momentum across the rest of Yum!. Overall results in 2014 were disappointing as the Chinese supplier incident in July offset our strong first half of the year. Our top priority is to recover sales in China and capture the significant profit leverage we have in this business.”

Yum! Brands, Inc. traded at $75.00 in the after hours session, up 1.83 percent.