Bank of America Maintains Buy on Yum! Brands

Bank of America published a research report on Yum! Brands

that maintained its Buy rating and $79 price objective on the company. In the report, Bank of America wrote, "Third quarter results and the recent 18% increase in Yum's dividend reinforce our rating, Yum reported 3Q EPS before special items of $0.99, a penny better than our estimate and $0.02 above consensus. Sales were strong in both China (same store sales up 6%) and the U.S. (blended comps also up 6%) and restaurant level margins exceeded our expectations across operating segments. Yum raised full year EPS guidance for growth of least 13% or at least $3.24, a move we thought the company might have saved for its early December meeting." Yum! Brands traded up 4.66 percent pre-market over its $66.04 Tuesday closing price.