Yum! Brands, Inc.
Quick Service Restaurants (QSR)Founded 1997- Updated July 2025
Reviewed by Swet Parvadiya
Last reviewed: July 2025
CorpDigest
Yum! Brands, Inc.
Financial Performance
Last reviewed: July 2025 · By Swet Parvadiya
Revenue
$7.05B
Market Cap
$42.0B
Net Income
$1.2B
Employees
36,000
Revenue grew from $6.51 billion in 2022 to $7.05 billion in 2024, with system-wide sales reaching $38.5 billion in fiscal 2024. Net income of $1.21 billion on $7.05 billion in corporate revenue implies a net margin of approximately 17 percent, reflecting the royalty model's insulation from the food cost, labor, and occupancy expenses that franchisees absorb. The 41.2 percent operating margin is the most direct expression of what franchise economics produce at this scale: the corporate entity collects revenue on every transaction without carrying the operational risk of any individual restaurant. When chicken prices spike or minimum wages increase, franchisees adjust their economics; Yum!'s royalty percentage remains fixed. The $42 billion market capitalization against $7.05 billion in corporate revenue implies a price-to-sales multiple of approximately six, reasonable for a business with high-margin recurring royalty streams, 150 million loyalty program members, and exposure to long-term growth in emerging market restaurant density. The centralized procurement apparatus that leverages 55,000 global units to negotiate master commodity pricing agreements provides franchisees with input cost protection they couldn't access individually — a value that Yum!'s system scale creates and that supports franchisee unit economics, ultimately protecting the royalty stream that depends on franchisee profitability and willingness to develop new locations.
Revenue Trend Analysis
YoY Change
+4.4%
2-Year CAGR
+4.1%
Peak Year
2024
Trend
Consistent Growth
Yum! Brands, Inc. has reported revenue across 3 fiscal years, compounding at +4.1% annually over 2 years. The most recent year saw a 4.4% increase versus the prior year. Revenue peaked in 2024 at $7.0B. Out of 2 reported periods, 2 showed growth and 0 showed a decline.
| Fiscal Year | Revenue | Net Income | YoY Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2024 | $7.0B | $1.2B | +4.4% |
| FY2023 | $6.8B | — | +3.7% |
| FY2022 | $6.5B | — | — |
Source: SEC EDGAR filings, annual earnings releases, and verified financial disclosures.
Click any row to see year details.
Yum! Brands reported revenue of 7.08 billion dollars for fiscal year 2023, up 4 percent from 6.84 billion dollars in 2022, and system sales of 62.6 billion dollars across the four brands, up 9 percent year over year. Operating profit reached 2.32 billion dollars at an operating margin of 32.8 percent, demonstrating the asset-light economics of the franchise-heavy model. Net income was 1.60 billion dollars and adjusted diluted earnings per share were 5.32 dollars, both records for the company. KFC contributed system sales of 33.3 billion dollars with operating profit of 1.32 billion dollars, Taco Bell contributed system sales of 14.9 billion dollars with operating profit of 884 million dollars, Pizza Hut contributed system sales of 13.2 billion dollars with operating profit of 309 million dollars, and Habit Burger Grill contributed system sales of 583 million dollars with a small operating loss reflecting its company-operated mix and below-scale unit economics. Same-store sales growth for the year was 4 percent at KFC, 5 percent at Taco Bell, and roughly flat at Pizza Hut. New unit growth across the system reached approximately 4,800 gross new restaurant openings and net unit growth of 4 percent year over year, the highest unit-growth pace in the industry among large quick-service operators.
Yum! Brands has a long-established capital return program consisting of a quarterly dividend and an opportunistic share-repurchase program, supported by the strong operating cash flow generated by the franchise-heavy business model. Yum paid total dividends of approximately 657 million dollars in fiscal year 2023 at a quarterly rate that was raised from 60 cents per share to 67 cents per share in late 2023, equating to an annual dividend of 2.68 dollars per share. The dividend has been raised every year since the 2007 dividend initiation, and the company targets a dividend payout ratio of approximately 50 percent of adjusted earnings per share. Share repurchases totaled approximately 800 million dollars in fiscal year 2023, slowing from peak repurchase activity in 2021 because of higher interest rates and the desire to maintain credit ratings within the investment-grade Baa3 range. The Yum board authorized a 2.0 billion dollar share repurchase program in 2022 that ran through 2025 with roughly half of the authorization deployed by year-end 2023. Combined dividends and repurchases of approximately 1.46 billion dollars represented essentially all of fiscal year 2023 free cash flow, demonstrating the disciplined commitment to returning capital to shareholders rather than building cash on the balance sheet.
Yum! Brands common stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker YUM with a market capitalization of approximately 38 billion dollars as of mid-2025 at a share price near 140 dollars and approximately 280 million shares outstanding. The market capitalization places Yum among the larger quick-service-restaurant operators globally, behind McDonald's at approximately 200 billion dollars but ahead of Restaurant Brands International at approximately 30 billion dollars. Yum carries substantial financial leverage of approximately 12 billion dollars of total debt against approximately 600 million dollars of cash and equivalents at year-end 2023, for net debt of roughly 11.4 billion dollars and a net debt to adjusted EBITDA leverage ratio of approximately 4.6 times. The debt structure consists primarily of senior unsecured notes issued through multiple tranches with maturities through 2050 at fixed coupons mostly in the 3 to 6 percent range. The leverage profile is higher than McDonald's at approximately 3 times and Restaurant Brands International at approximately 5 times, reflecting Yum's preference for using debt to fund share repurchases and acquisitions rather than maintaining a conservative balance sheet. Yum's credit ratings are Baa3 at Moody's and BB+ at Standard and Poor's, with the split-rating reflecting different views on the appropriate leverage for asset-light franchise companies.
Yum! Brands derives a meaningful and growing share of its franchise royalty revenue from international markets, reflecting the company's strategic priority of unit expansion outside the United States. International system sales reached approximately 38 billion dollars in fiscal year 2023, or roughly 60 percent of the total 62.6 billion dollars, with the largest contributions from China through the Yum China master franchise agreement, India through Devyani and Sapphire, the United Kingdom and Europe through various country master franchisees, the Middle East through Americana Restaurants which is publicly listed on Tadawul and Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, and Australia. Net new unit growth has been disproportionately international, with approximately 80 percent of the 4 percent net unit growth in 2023 coming from outside the United States. KFC has been the most international of the four brands with approximately 24,000 stores outside the United States out of roughly 30,000 globally, while Taco Bell is the most US-concentrated with roughly 7,200 of its 8,000 stores in the United States. The international growth profile supports higher overall growth rates than US-domestic restaurant peers, although it also exposes Yum to currency translation and country-specific risks, including the geopolitical pressure on the China business and the boycott pressure on Western brands in the Middle East following the 2023 Israel-Hamas conflict.
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CorpDigest. "Yum! Brands, Inc. Revenue & Financials." CorpDigest, https://corpdigest.com/company/yum-brands/financials.<div style="font-family:system-ui,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:1.5;border:1px solid #e2e8f0;border-radius:8px;padding:12px 16px;max-width:520px"><strong>Yum! Brands, Inc. reported $7B in revenue (FY2024).</strong><br>Source: <a href="https://corpdigest.com/company/yum-brands/financials" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CorpDigest — Yum! Brands, Inc. financials</a></div>