Yum! Brands Stock Shines After Q4 Earnings Beat, Fueled By Taco Bell and KFC Growth Engines

Yum! Brands, Inc. YUM shares are trading higher on Thursday.

The company reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings per share of $1.61, beating the street view of $1.60. Quarterly sales of $2.362 billion outpaced the analyst consensus estimate of $2.346 billion.

“Our twin growth engines remain strong with Taco Bell U.S. delivering same-store sales growth of 5% in the fourth quarter, meaningfully outpacing the industry, and KFC International delivering its second consecutive year with over 2,000 net new units,” said David Gibbs, CEO.

Yum! Brands reported strong digital system sales, exceeding $9 billion with a digital mix of over 50%.

Worldwide system sales in the fourth quarter grew 8%, excluding foreign currency translation, with KFC at 6%, Taco Bell at 14%, and Pizza Hut at 3%.

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KFC opened 1,100 new restaurants in the quarter and 2,892 new locations across 97 countries for the year. Taco Bell opened 186 new restaurants in the quarter and 347 new locations across 25 countries for the year.

The firm said it opened 1,804 gross units, leading to 5% year-over-year unit growth, excluding the 120 unit divestiture in the second quarter related to stores under the Jeno’s Pizza and Telepizza brands.

Outlook: The company targets long-term goals of 5% unit growth (first announced in 2022), 7% system sales growth (excluding currency and 53rd week), and at least 8% core operating profit growth (excluding currency and 53rd week).

“I'm confident the changes we've made and investments we're making position us to be stronger and more agile. For those reasons and more, we expect 2025 to be another on-algorithm year for Core Operating Profit growth,” said Chris Turner, CFO.

The company exited the quarter with cash and equivalents worth $807 million and long-term debt worth $11.306 billion.

Also today, the company announced Byte by Yum!, a comprehensive collection of proprietary Software as a Service (SaaS) AI-driven products that deliver integrated and seamless technologies for its restaurants.

Price Action: YUM shares are trading higher by 7.31% to $140.85 at last check Thursday.

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