By Connor Hart

Fast-food restaurant owner Yum Brands logged higher revenue in the first quarter despite operating in what Chief Executive David Gibbs called a complex consumer environment.

The owner of Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell locations posted a profit of $253 million, or 90 cents a share, for its three months ended March 31, compared with $314 million, or $1.10 a share, a year earlier.

Adjusted per-share earnings came in at $1.30, just ahead of the $1.29 that analysts polled by FactSet expected.

Revenue increased 12%, to $1.79 billion, but missed the $1.85 billion that analysts modeled. Yum said Taco Bell and KFC led sales growth during the recent quarter.

Many restaurant-chain owners have struggled to boost customer traffic amid high inflation and falling consumer sentiment.

Chipotle Mexican Grill said last week that same-store sales--which accounts for store openings and closings--slipped 0.4% in the recent quarter, marking the fast-casual restaurant chain's first quarterly drop in the metric since the pandemic. Domino's Pizza on Monday reported a decline of 0.5% in U.S. comparable sales in the first quarter, though the pizza chain guided for the metric to grow for the full year.

Yum said global same-store sales rose 3% across all the Louisville, Ky., company's restaurants, compared with analyst projections for a 3.2% increase. The metric grew 9% and 2% across the company's Taco Bell and KFC divisions, respectively. Pizza Hut's comparable sales fell 2%.

Write to Connor Hart at connor.hart@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 30, 2025 07:01 ET (11:01 GMT)

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