Yum! Brands beats estimates in Q3, but Pizza Hut is not so yummy

Worse, same-store sales in the United States dropped 6%. Pizza Hut did particularly badly with a comps decline of 13%. Come on, Pizza Hut, you can do better! Considering that pizza is one of the most delicious foods out there and that Pizza Hut is one of the most recognizable restaurant brands, management should be quite disappointed with itself.

I will say this, though: the margins for the U.S. restaurants were very good. Aiding the improvement in this area was a drop in commodity costs. Efficiencies also helped. So, there was a bright side to those terrible comps.

Obviously, there's work to be done, but Yum! Brands seems fine to me in an overall sense. Many international markets are doing well in terms of system sales growth once currency translations are taken into account. And China continues to be an important engine of future shareholder value. Also, I'm sure investors noticed that management increased guidance for the full fiscal year.

Shares of Yum! Brands increased almost 1.8% in yesterday's extended trading session. The market apparently was okay with the release. You'll notice that Wall Street didn't send shares extremely higher even though the earnings beat was achieved on a wide margin. Yum! Brands is near a 52-week high, so maybe the market feels that a lot of the good news is already priced in. I'm not particularly interested in trading this stock, but long-term investors should prosper over time.

Disclosure: I don't own any company mentioned; positions can change without notice.