01:50 PM EDT, 04/30/2025 (MT Newswires) -- CFRA, an independent research provider, has provided MT Newswires with the following research alert. Analysts at CFRA have summarized their opinion as follows:

We lower our price target from $182 to $174, 28x (from 29x) our 2025 EPS estimate, a premium to its 24x three-year average forward multiple, justified by resilient earnings growth. We lower our 2025 EPS estimate to $6.23 from $6.27, reflecting slight margin pressure, and raise our 2026 EPS estimate to $6.93 from $6.85, driven by our favorable view of comp growth at KFC ( YUM ) and Taco Bell. Store operating expenses (+400 bps Y/Y) came in higher than we expected but reflect accelerated store closures at Pizza Hut. Still, core operating profit growth reached 8% Y/Y, in line with management's long-term growth outlook. Taco Bell and KFC ( YUM ) are delivering double-digit operating profit growth and showing strong momentum across international markets. Our premium valuation gives credit to shares of YUM for their operating resilience in addition to long-term growth drivers, Byte! by Yum, new menu concepts, steady store growth, and U.S. comp growth outperformance versus peers.