Thanks To China, Yum Brands Delivers (YUM)

October 10, 2008 | By Ryan C. Fuhrmann Yum Brands (NYSE:YUM), known best for its KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut restaurant franchises, saw third-quarter earnings per share grow 16% from last year. A lower tax rate and share buybacks helped the company offset weakness in the U.S. and "unprecedented" commodity cost inflation, but management was confident enough to back its full-year earnings guidance, thanks primarily to solid growth in its international businesses, which should produce many years of robust growth. Three Key Divisions China is such an important region to Yum that it breaks out the results in its own division. For the quarter, sales in China grew an impressive 47% from $581 million in the same quarter last year to $854 million this year. This accounted for 34.4% of total company sales. Operating profit grew 19%... [read full story]