Restaurants

Cramer on Yum earnings: 'This is inexplicable’

Yum Brands earnings 'inexplicable,' says Cramer
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Yum Brands earnings 'inexplicable,' says Cramer
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CNBC's Jim Cramer said Wednesday he is baffled by Yum Brands' latest earnings miss.

The parent company of fast food restaurants like KFC and Taco Bell posted third-quarter earnings per share of $1 as same-store sales in China grew just 2 percent.

"I come back and think 'what does it say about execution' because we know Nike is selling a lot of shoes there; we know that Starbucks has had a fantastic run; we know that Apple … is selling well," Cramer said on "Squawk on the Street."

An advertisement for a Yum! Brands' KFC restaurant in Guangzhou, China.
KFC parent plunges 18% after key China metric miss

Yum Brands also lowered its full-year guidance, saying it expects "EPS growth to be low-single-digit positive."

To which Cramer said: "It's really unacceptable to give that kind of guidance because, when I hear that, I think that they didn't know, and it wasn't like everyone suddenly decided to go chicken-free."

Yum's stock plunged nearly 20 percent in late-morning trading Wednesday, slashing about $7 billion of its market value.

DISCLOSURE: Cramer's trust owned shares of Apple and Starbucks.