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Same-restaurant sales at Taco Bell increased by 9%.

Rachel Murray/Getty Images for Taco Bell

The fast-food company

Yum! Brands

issued better-than-expected first-quarter results and signaled confidence about the outlook for post-pandemic sales, sending the stock higher in early trading.

Yum (ticker: YUM) said it earned $326 million, or $1.07 a share, both on an adjusted basis and under generally accepted accounting principles. Revenue climbed 18% to $1.49 billion. Analysts were looking for EPS of 87 cents and revenue of $1.45 billion.  

Same-store sales climbed 9% for the company as a whole, above the 8.3% consensus estimate. Pizza Hut led the way, with a 12% increase in comparable-restaurant sales, while Taco Bell and KFC notched gains of 9% and 8%, respectively.

Yum stock was up 1.3% to $117.87 in morning trading. The shares have gained 8.3% year to date, and have risen 34.5% in the past 12 months.

Analysts have been predicting a surge in restaurant sales recently, given a confluence of factors, including government stimulus, an improving labor market, and rapid vaccine rollouts in the U.S. that have made consumers feels safer dining out again. Yum’s management echoed the positive sentiment, noting that post-pandemic the company is poised for “a long runway of growth ahead of us.”

Store counts across Yum’s three major brands climbed nearly 1%, beating consensus expectations, while fixed costs were lower than many analysts expected.

Even with the end of the pandemic in sight, Yum’s Pizza Hut chain saw nearly a quarter of its same-store sales growth come from off-premise orders, and new menu innovation, like the new Detroit-style pies, could help it overcome difficult comparisons. Menu changes at Taco Bell, including the quesalupa, also helped that division. KFC was the laggard, largely due to weakness in Europe and Asia, which could improve as global Covid-19 case counts fall.

Analysts have been getting more positive about the stock in recent months.

Write to Teresa Rivas at teresa.rivas@barrons.com

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