Yum China Holdings (YUMC) Earnings: Q3 2026 Results and Next Report Date

The quarter ended September 30, 2026 and Yum China published the results on November 3, 2026. Revenue and diluted EPS are shown against Q3 2025, the same quarter a year earlier, which takes seasonal swings out of the comparison. Yum China reports EPS two ways: GAAP, under the accounting rules every US filer follows, and Adjusted, which leaves out items the company considers outside its operating results. The release reconciles the two, and when they diverge, the reconciliation says why.

• Yum China completed its purchase of the Pizza Hut brand in Mainland China from Yum! Brands on August 7, 2026, for $1.2 billion in cash, and no longer pays Yum! Brands license fees on Pizza Hut.
• Yum China reported no Special Items in the quarter or the year-ago quarter, so its Adjusted diluted EPS equals GAAP diluted EPS in both periods.
• Yum China reports in US dollars but earns its revenue in China. Total revenues rose 8% as reported and 2% excluding foreign currency translation.

Source: Yum China Q3 2026 results, November 3, 2026. Also in the Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2026. Figures as reported; checked against the release on November 10, 2026.

How Yum China splits revenue in its own release, under its own labels, for Q3 2026 against Q3 2025. Indented lines are parts of the line above them.

• Yum China's KFC revenue was $2.6 billion in Q3 2026, up 8% from $2.4 billion in Q3 2025, 75% of total revenue.
• Yum China's Pizza Hut revenue was $665 million in Q3 2026, up 5% from $635 million in Q3 2025, 19% of total revenue.
• Yum China's All Other Segments revenue was $307 million in Q3 2026, up 13% from $272 million in Q3 2025, 9% of total revenue.
• Yum China's Corporate and Unallocated revenue was $153 million in Q3 2026, up 33% from $115 million in Q3 2025, 4% of total revenue.

Segment lines are the figures writers cite most often, because they show where the growth in a quarter came from. Companies redraw their segments from time to time and restate the prior year to match, so a year-ago figure here can differ from the one printed a year ago. When that has happened, the note above says so.

From the earnings release

Yum China gives targets for store openings, capital spending and capital returns. It gives no revenue or EPS outlook in its release.

In its Q3 2026 release, Yum China said:

“Total stores of over 20,500, or more than 2,400 net new stores.”

“40-50% franchise mix of net new stores for both KFC and Pizza Hut.”

“Capital expenditures of approximately $600 million to $700 million.”

“$1.5 billion capital return to shareholders.”

Source: Yum China Q3 2026 release, Nov 3, 2026.

This is the company's own guidance as of Nov 3, 2026, quoted as given. Walnut does not make forecasts of its own. Analyst estimates for the coming quarters are on the YUMC forecast page.

Revenue and diluted EPS for the last 5 quarters. Each date links to that quarter's release.

GAAP total revenues and diluted EPS, each as first reported in that quarter's release.

Yum China's next report is expected around February 4, 2027, a date estimated from its reporting history that the company has not yet confirmed. This page will show Q3 2026 until those results are out and have been checked against the release.

Each quarter keeps its own page with the figures as reported, so a link to one stays pointed at the same numbers after the next report.

• Q3 2026 (this page), reported Nov 3, 2026

Yum China's revenue is mostly food sold in its own restaurants. Company sales were $3,214 million of $3,477 million in total revenues in Q3 2026. Franchise fees and income added $32 million, revenues from transactions with franchisees $183 million, and other revenues $48 million. By segment, KFC brought in $2,597 million and Pizza Hut $665 million. (Yum China Q3 2026 release, Nov 3, 2026)

Most of the 8% rise in total revenues came from currency. Excluding foreign currency translation, total revenues grew 2%. System sales grew 3% excluding F/X, while same-store sales reached 97% of the prior year's level. Same-store transactions grew 3%, the 15th consecutive quarter of growth, and KFC's ticket average was 5% lower. Yum China put the same-store sales pressure down to tough comparisons against last year's delivery platform subsidies and adverse weather in August. (Yum China Q3 2026 release, Nov 3, 2026)

Yum China grew mainly by opening stores. It opened 692 net new stores in the quarter, a quarterly record, with 44% opened by franchisees, and ended September with 19,989 stores, 19% of them franchised. KFC had 14,307 stores and Pizza Hut 4,740. (Yum China Q3 2026 release, Nov 3, 2026)

Delivery is now more than half of Yum China's business. Delivery sales grew 7% and contributed approximately 54% of total Company sales, up from 51% a year earlier. For full year 2025, Yum China's 10-K put delivery at approximately 48% of Company sales and digital ordering at approximately 94% of total Company sales. (Yum China Q3 2026 release, Nov 3, 2026; Yum China Form 10-K, 2025, Feb 27, 2026)

The "Revenues from transactions with franchisees" line comes from Yum China's central procurement model: the company buys substantially all food and paper products from suppliers and then sells and delivers them to KFC and Pizza Hut restaurants, including franchisees. That line rose 30% to $183 million in the quarter. (Yum China Q3 2026 release, Nov 3, 2026)

Yum China's GAAP diluted EPS was $0.91, up 20% from $0.76, and up 12% excluding F/X. Yum China reported no Special Items in either quarter, so Adjusted diluted EPS was also $0.91. The release says the quarter carried a 6-cent favorable F/X impact, and the year-ago quarter included a mark-to-market loss of 2 cents on equity investments. The investment line swung from a $10 million loss to a $5 million gain. (Yum China Q3 2026 release, Nov 3, 2026)

Net income attributable to Yum China rose 10% to $311 million, so much of the EPS growth came from a smaller share count. Diluted weighted-average shares fell to 343 million from 369 million. Yum China returned $362 million to shareholders in the quarter, $263 million in share repurchases and $99 million in cash dividends, and in the first nine months repurchased 16.6 million shares for $778 million. (Yum China Q3 2026 release, Nov 3, 2026; Yum China Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Nov 5, 2026)

Below operating profit, interest income, net fell to $7 million from $23 million. Yum China paid $1.2 billion in cash for the Pizza Hut brand in Mainland China, and short-term borrowings at September 30, 2026 included a $1,252 million bridge loan. The effective tax rate was 28.2%, against 27.6% a year earlier. (Yum China Q3 2026 release, Nov 3, 2026; Yum China Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Nov 5, 2026)

Diluted EPS divides net income by the weighted average number of shares outstanding in the quarter, plus the shares that options and other equity awards could add. Buybacks shrink that count and lift EPS for the same profit; share issuance and stock awards enlarge it.

Yum China does not give a revenue or EPS outlook in its release. Its 2026 Outlook covers stores, capital spending and capital returns: total stores of over 20,500, or more than 2,400 net new stores, a 40-50% franchise mix of net new stores for KFC and Pizza Hut, capital expenditures of approximately $600 million to $700 million, and a $1.5 billion capital return to shareholders. In the first nine months of 2026 it had returned $1,080 million. (Yum China Q3 2026 release, Nov 3, 2026)

Yum China also set a capital return plan beyond 2026. Starting in 2027 it plans to return approximately 100% of annual free cash flow after subsidiaries' dividend payments to non-controlling interests, which it expects to average approximately $900 million to over $1 billion a year in 2027 and 2028. In November 2026 the board added $1 billion to the repurchase authorization, leaving approximately $1.3 billion available. (Yum China Q3 2026 release, Nov 3, 2026)

A consensus figure is the average of the models published by the analysts who cover Yum China, collected by a data provider and revised up to the day of the report. A quarter that lands above it says how expectations were set as much as how the business did, and the share price on the day also reflects the guidance and the lines no consensus covers.

The consensus figures on this page are Yahoo Finance's, as pulled on the date shown. Each comes with the number of analysts behind it; the smaller that number, the more one revised estimate can move the average.

The figures below are the ones Yum China's own release and filings put weight on for Q3 2026, with the latest reported value for each.

What the quarter means for a holding is a separate question from what it reported. The case for and against owning YUMC is on is YUMC a buy or a sell?, what analysts expect next is on the YUMC forecast, and what the company does is on the Yum China Holdings (YUMC) stock page.

Every number on this page can be traced to a document Yum China published. Checking one takes a couple of minutes, and it is worth doing before you quote a figure anywhere.

• The results release is the document linked in the source line above. Companies publish it on their investor relations site at the moment results go out, and it carries the headline tables: revenue, operating income, net income and EPS for the quarter and the year-ago quarter.
• The same release is filed with the SEC as Exhibit 99.1 to a Form 8-K under Item 2.02, usually on the day of the report. The SEC copy does not change after the fact, which makes it the safer thing to link when you cite a number.
• The quarterly report (Form 10-Q) follows within a few weeks and carries the full financial statements, the segment note and management's discussion of what changed. The fourth quarter is covered by the annual report (Form 10-K) instead.
• Restated comparisons are flagged in the notes on this page. When a company redraws its segments or changes how it adjusts EPS, it restates the year-ago column, so the year-ago figure in a new release can differ from the one printed a year ago. This page always uses the comparison in the newer release, because that is the like-for-like one.

A walk-through of every line in a release, with what each one tells you, is in how to read an earnings report.