Restaurant analysts predicted months ago that Yum! Brands would turn in a positive third quarter for 2012, but few expected that performance would be so spectacular.
Call it a homerun a home run for a company that, despite some struggles in the past two years, is figuring out how to wring more dollars from consumers’ wallets with new and better products.
At yesterday’s market close, Yum, which owns KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell, reported earnings per share of 99 cents for the quarter. And while that may not sound like a lot, it’s 2 cents above the First Call consensus estimate — which, again, may not sound like a lot until you look at the sales numbers.
Its U.S. stores turned in an aggregate +6 percent comparable sales performance — huge in a day when +2 is the new +5 — and a full 4 percent above the prediction of the analysts at Janney Capital Markets, a team of restaurant data wonks I follow closely.
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