Buy them for post-pandemic gains

Article Excerpt

In November 2016, Yum Brands set up its Chinese operations as Yum China and gifted its investors with shares in the new company. Specifically, investors received one share of the new firm for each YUM share they held. The COVID-19 pandemic hurt the share price for both Yum Brands and its spinoff in 2020. However, they have since rebounded strongly as their well-established takeout and delivery services cut their reliance on in-store diners. As a result, Yum Brands is now up 67% since the split, while Yum China has soared 158%. We feel further easing of COVID-19 restrictions will fuel even more gains for investors in 2021. YUM! BRANDS INC. $104 is a buy. The company (New York symbol YUM; Consumer Sector; Shares outstanding: 301.7 million; Market cap: $31.4 billion; Dividend yield: 1.9%; Takeover Target Rating: Medium; www.yum.com) operates 50,000 restaurants in over 150 countries—65% of those outlets are outside of the U.S. Its main banners are KFC (fried chicken), Pizza Hut and Taco Bell (Mexican…