The market is treacherous right now. Even when everything looks to be going great, one hawkish comment from a Fed president can send it all sinking to the bottom. That happened during the day yesterday when Bullard bullied the market into a tailspin. You have to protect yourself in markets like this and look for stocks with the strongest earnings trends. Today’s Bear of the Day is a stock that actually has a ton of earnings growth, it’s just been under the gun recently as estimates have come down

Today’s Bear of the Day is Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) Yum China (YUMC - Free Report) . Yum China owns and operates franchise restaurants in China. The company operates under two segments, KFC and Pizza Hut, but owns brands such as Little Sheep, Huang Ji Huang, COFFii & JOY, East Dawning, Taco Bell and Lavazza.

The reason for the unfavorable rank is the recent negative earnings estimate revisions coming from analysts. Over the last thirty days, two analysts have cut their earnings estimates for the current year and next year. The negative sentiment has brought down our Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year from $2.06 to $1.97 while next year’s number is off from $2.64 to $2.55.

The good news for long-term bulls in the stock is that the growth is still forecast to be very strong. Both revenue and earnings estimates are double-digit percentage gains. Current year sales forecast is set to come in at 17.51% with next year at 11.96%. Current year EPS is forecast to come in at 62.8% with next year at 29.36%. Estimates have been coming down since peaking along with the stock price in June 2021. Since then, shares are off from the high $60s to $50.

The Retail – Restaurants industry is in the Bottom 9% of our Zacks Industry Rank. There are a few names within the industry which are in the good graces of our Zacks Rank. These stocks include Zacks RANK #2 (Buy) stocks Arcos Dorados (ARCO - Free Report) and First Watch Restaurant Group (FWRG - Free Report) .

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