Coffee helps draw more customers

Article Excerpt

YUM CHINA HOLDINGS INC. $29 is a buy for aggressive investors. The company (New York symbol YUMC; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer Sector; Shares outstanding: 391.0 million; Market cap: $11.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.1; Dividend yield: 2.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.yumchina.com) is China’s largest fast-food operator with over 14,600 outlets, mainly under the KFC and Pizza Hut banners. The company recently opened its 200th K-COFFEE outlet in China, which it operates in partnership with Italian coffee maker Lavazza. These stores are helping KFC attract new customers. What’s more, these stores share kitchens and other facilities, which helps keep their operating costs down. These new outlets, along with lower costs for supplies such as food ingredients and paper, should lift the company’s 2024 earnings by about 8% to $2.15 a share. The stock trades at a moderate 13.5 times that forecast. The $0.64 dividend yields 2.2%. Yum China is a buy. buy…