Topic: How To Invest

Wall Street Stock Forecaster Hotline – Friday, March 18, 2022

Article Excerpt

YUM CHINA HOLDINGS INC., $44.45, New York symbol YUMC, remains a buy, but only for highly aggressive investors. The stock lets investors tap China’s largest fast-food operator, with 12,163 outlets, mainly under the KFC and Pizza Hut banners. Yum China was a wholly owned business of Yum Brands (New York symbol YUM) until November 1, 2016. That’s when the parent company spun it off. With the split, investors received one share of Yum China for each Yum Brands share they held. They won’t have to pay capital gains tax on those shares until they sell them. The stock is down 15% since the start of March. That’s mainly because the rapid spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 in China forced the company to temporarily close about 1,100 of its outlets. Due to those closures, Yum China’s same-store sales declined 4% in January and February 2022 compared to the same two-month period in 2021. As well, same-store sales were down 20% in the first two…