Yum! Brands (YUM) shares gain despite disappointing Q4 sales

Yum! Brands (NYSE: YUM) shares jumped Wednesday following its latest quarterly results, which saw it miss consensus earnings and revenue expectations

The global restaurant giant posted Q4 earnings of $1.26 per share, $0.15 worse than the analyst estimate of $1.41 per share. Revenue for the quarter came in at $2.04 billion versus the consensus estimate of $2.11 billion.

Worldwide system sales grew 5% in Q4, with KFC at 7%, Taco Bell at 6%, and Pizza Hut at 1%. YUM also reported full-year system sales growth of 10%, with 22% digital sales growth.

The company's CEO, David Gibbs, told analysts on the company’s conference call that during the quarter, its "topline sales were impacted by the conflict in the Middle East region with varying degrees of impact across markets in the Middle East and Malaysia and Indonesia.”

Yum is the second fast food restaurant company to note an impact on its sales from the Middle East conflict after McDonald's said the war had "meaningfully impacted" performance in some overseas markets.

Despite the disappointing sales performance, YUM shares are currently up over 3% on Wednesday.

By Sam Boughedda

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