- Yum Brands, the parent of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, posted mixed first-quarter results, as earnings beat Wall Street estimates but revenue missed.
- Pizza Hut’s same-store sales dropped more than expected.
- Yum Brands said sales rose 12% in the first quarter.
Yum Brands on Wednesday reported mixed quarterly results as Pizza Hut’s same-store sales dropped more than expected.
Shares of the company fell less than 1% in premarket trading.
Here’s what the company reported for the first quarter compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:
- Earnings per share: $1.30 adjusted vs. $1.29 expected
- Revenue: $1.79 billion vs. $1.85 billion expected
Yum reported first-quarter net income of $253 million, or 90 cents per share, down from $314 million, or $1.10 per share, a year earlier.
Excluding costs to move KFC’s U.S. headquarters to Texas and other items, the company earned $1.30 per share.
Net sales climbed 12% to $1.79 billion. Across all of its brands, Yum’s same-store sales rose 3%.
Once again, Pizza Hut was the laggard this quarter. The struggling pizza chain saw its same-store sales shrink 2%, a steeper decline than the 0.1% decrease projected by StreetAccount estimates. Pizza Hut’s U.S. same-store sales slid 5%, while the metric was flat in international markets.
Taco Bell, the standout of Yum’s portfolio, reported same-store sales growth of 9%, topping estimates of 8%.
KFC’s same-store sales rose 2%, beating estimates of 1.4%. The bulk of the fried chicken chain’s sales come from outside the U.S. China, its largest market, saw system sales growth of 3%.
But like Pizza Hut, KFC’s U.S. business has been struggling. The chain’s domestic same-store sales shrank 1% in the quarter. Rival chicken chains Wingstop and Raising Cane’s have overtaken KFC’s U.S. sales, according to Circana’s 2025 ranking of U.S. restaurants by sales.
Digital orders, which include those on mobile apps and in-store kiosks, accounted for 55% of Yum’s total sales this quarter.
In late March, CEO David Gibbs announced plans to retire in the first quarter of 2026. The company’s board is currently searching for his replacement.
