Yum China Holdings Inc. (NYSE: YUMC) posted better than expected first quarter earnings results, sending its shares soaring higher in aftermarket trading.

Written by StockNews.com

The Plano, TX-based fast food giant, which includes Yum! Brands’ Chinese operations that were spun off back in November 2016, reported:

• Q1 earnings per share (EPS) of $0.44, which was $0.06 better than the Wall Street consensus estimate of $0.38.
• Revenues fell 1.5% from last year to $1.28 billion, but still beat analysts’ view for $1.27 billion.
• Same-store sales (“comps”) rose 1% in the latest period, including growth of 1% at KFC and 2% at Pizza Hut.
• Total restaurant margin increased 3.7 percentage points to 23.0%, helped by a new retail tax structure.

The company commented via press release:

“We are especially gratified with the progress made on two key drivers of growth — Digital and Delivery.

A network of over 4,400 restaurants in our system offer delivery services and we believe we have established an infrastructure for continued growth. In the first quarter of 2017, delivery represented about 12% of our company sales.

With approximately 93 million loyalty program members between KFC and Pizza Hut Casual Dining, we believe we have unprecedented insights into consumer behavior and have been engaging with them across the digital eco-system: from pre-order to payment.

We remain confident in our ability to deliver 550-600 new builds while delivering a double digit growth in operating profit, excluding F/X, in 2017.”

Yum China Holdings Inc. shares surged $3.12 (+11.07%) to $31.30 in after-hours trading Wednesday. Year-to-date, YUMC had gained 7.89% prior to today’s report, versus a 5.49% rise in the benchmark S&P 500 index during the same period...