Thursday September 29, 2022, 07:00:00
By Mark Kalinowski
Appearing at a competitor conference this past September 20th, Yum Brands CFO Chris Turner made some remarks about potential acquisitions: “We’re keeping our eyes open. To do something that’s a bet-of-the-company size, that would be a really, really high bar before we decide to do something like that. But, I think you could imagine us being really interested in a smaller brand like Habit [which Yum acquired in March 2020], and saying, how can we unlock growth? Of course, we’re always scanning categories. There’s lots of – we’re probably not going to do something that is directly competitive with our current categories or franchisees – but [there’s] a lot of interesting categories outside of that. We’re always looking at different spaces. The Mediterranean food space is interesting. There’s lots of interesting categories out there that we’re studying.”
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Wednesday September 7, 2022, 07:00:00
By Mark Kalinowski
Yum Brands’ quick-service Mexican concept Taco Bell acknowledges that the official return date for its Mexican Pizza will be Thursday, September 15th (with loyalty program members getting early access on September 13th). Mexican Pizza was a permanent menu item from its inception in 1985 (when it was known as “Pizzazz Pizza”) until its discontinuation in November 2020. This discontinuation caused a social-media uproar, when eventually led to Mexican Pizza being reintroduced in mid-May 2022.
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Wednesday August 3, 2022, 10:25:44
By Mark Kalinowski
Earlier today (Wednesday), Yum Brands reported adjusted Q2 EPS of $1.05, falling short of our $1.13 estimate and sell-side consensus (according to Consensus Metrix) of $1.10. We attribute the shortfall primarily to: (1) weaker-than-expected same-store sales at KFC and Pizza Hut (including both brands in China and the U.S.), and (2) a Q2 adjusted tax rate of 24.3% (as compared to our 21.6% estimate and consensus at 21.7%. The tax-rate difference cost Yum Brands about -4 cents in Q2 EPS, implying that Q2 EPS would have been only one cent short of consensus excluding this factor.
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