Yum! Brands

YUM! BRANDS INC. $58 (New York symbol YUM; Aggressive Growth Portfolio; Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 460.5 million; Market cap: $26.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.2; Dividend yield: 2.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.yum.com) continues to expand in China, which now accounts for half of the company’s sales and earnings.

Yum now plans to double its fast-food outlets in China to 9,000 by …read more »

World stock market investing remains risky. That’s because many emerging countries have language barriers, weak investor-protection laws, less commitment to openness, fairness and so on.

A better way for North American investors to profit from rapid overseas growth is by investing in well-established, multinational U.S. companies. These firms’ well-known brands put them in a good position to enter new markets and …read more »

Yum! Brands Inc., New York symbol YUM, operates 38,000 fast-food restaurants in over 110 countries. Its main banners include KFC (fried chicken), Pizza Hut and Taco Bell (Mexican food). Yum is also a leader in investing in China. It was the first fast-food company to enter the country, in 1987.

We analyze Yum in Wall Street Stock Forecaster, our newsletter for …read more »

Companies in the highly competitive and fickle fast-food market are always looking for new ways to grow. Sometimes this involves introducing new products to try to take advantage of changing customer tastes. For instance, yesterday Yum! Brands (symbol YUM on New York) announced that it will reintroduce its KFC “Double Down” sandwich in Canada on June 1.

The Double Down …read more »

Yum! Brands Inc., symbol YUM on New York, operates nearly 38,000 fast-food restaurants in over 110 countries. Its main banners include KFC (fried chicken), Pizza Hut and Taco Bell (Mexican food). Yum has announced it will sell its Long John Silver’s (seafood) and its A&W (burgers) chains.

You can get our full analysis, including our clear stock advice, on Yum …read more »

Yum! Brands Inc., New York symbol YUM, operates over 37,000 fast-food restaurants in over 110 countries. Its main banners include KFC (fried chicken), Pizza Hut, Taco Bell (Mexican food) and Long John Silver’s (seafood).

The company continues to grow strongly in China. That offsets slower growth in the U.S. and other parts of the world.

In 2010, Yum’s sales rose 4.7%, to …read more »

YUM! BRANDS INC. $35 (New York symbol YUM; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 468.7 million; Market cap: $16.4 billion; WSSF Rating: Average) operates over 35,000 restaurants in over 100 countries. It has five main banners: KFC (fried chicken), Pizza Hut, Taco Bell (Mexican food), A&W (hamburgers) and Long John Silver (seafood).
China offsets slowing U.S. sales
Like McDonald’s, most of …read more »

Restaurant sales have generally slowed in the United States in the past year, due to high gasoline prices and lower consumer confidence in the wake of the housing market slowdown. This has hurt consumer spending. However, sales of less expensive fast food remain strong, particularly in developing regions such as Asia and Latin America.

As market leaders, McDonald’s and Yum will …read more »

YUM! BRANDS INC. $37 (New York symbol YUM; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 508.6 million; Market cap: $18.8 billion; SI Rating: Average) is the largest fast-food operator in the world in terms of number of locations, with 34,500 outlets in more than 100 countries.

Its major chains include KFC (fried chicken), Pizza Hut, Taco Bell (Mexican food), Long John …read more »

YUM! BRANDS INC. $34 (New York symbol YUM; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 520.0 million; Market cap: $17.7 billion; WSSF Rating: Average) operates over 34,000 restaurants in 100 countries. Banners include KFC (chicken), Pizza Hut, Taco Bell (Mexican food), Long John Silver’s (seafood) and A&W (hamburgers).

Most of Yum’s recent growth has come from its overseas operations, particularly in …read more »