‘If food be the music of love play on’, the opening line of Twelfth Night could be applied to Yum! Brands Inc (NYSE:YUM) stock, which has certainly delivered in abundance over the last few months on the weekly chart, and looks set to continue ahead of today’s earnings report, due before the market open. The analysts’ consensus is a forecast for EPS of $0.8 for the January to March quarter with the equivalent last year of EPS $0.9.
Since the start of the year, the price action has been even paced and measured and in sharp contrast to many other stocks which followed primary indices lower during the correction at the turn of the year. But not so YUM which merely paused into a congestion phase before continuing higher, and it is interesting to note our Quantum trend monitor maintained a bright blue perspective throughout for this period before bullish momentum was re-established in early February.
Over the last few weeks we have see the stock pause at the psychological $100 before continuing higher on rising volume and clean up candles. In other words, effort and result are in agreement as the price pushes higher and into the low volume node ahead, and with little in the way of either price or volume based resistance, should today’s results deliver, then expect to see the music continue as the stock continues to climb.