Yum rebounds from Chinese setback

Article Excerpt

YUM! BRANDS INC. $82 (New York symbol YUM; Aggressive Growth Portfolio; Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 411.4 million; Market cap: $33.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.8; Dividend yield: 1.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.yum.com) has 40,324 fast-food restaurants in over 110 countries. Its main banners include KFC (fried chicken), Pizza Hut and Taco Bell (Mexican food). Franchisees operate 80% of these outlets. The company was the first fast-food chain to enter China, in 1987, and is now a leader in that country. Its 6,332 Chinese outlets now supply 53% of its sales and 35% of its earnings. Other markets include the U.S. (23% of sales, 31% of earnings), and other countries (24%, 34%). Food safety fears hurt results Sales rose 25.8%, from $10.8 billion in 2009 to $13.6 billion in 2012. However, sales fell 4.0%, to $13.1 billion, in 2013 on allegations that Yum’s Chinese KFC outlets (which account for 73% of its restaurants in China) bought chicken with higher-than-permitted levels of antibiotics from…