In a bid to boost safety and convenience for digital orders amid the pandemic, Yum! Brands, Inc.’s YUM Pizza Hut recently announced the launch of The Hut Lane.

Notably, the new pickup initiative is a part of the brand's long-term strategy to modernize through digital ordering and improved customer experiences. With a dedicated digital order pick-up window available at more than 1,500 locations, the Hut Lane service can be accessed through the Pizza Hut app and pizzahut.com as well as for orders placed over the phone.

In case of unavailability of the lane in stores, the orders will pass through Pizza Hut's Contactless Curbside Pickup. Nevertheless, the idea represents the next evolution of breakthrough experience, thereby offering safety, convenience and speed without customers having to park cars.

With respect to the launch, Nicolas Burquier, chief customer & operations officer, Pizza Hut, stated, "Not only do we offer industry-leading, innovative menu items that are only available at Pizza Hut, we also offer several digital-first pick-up options for our customers, and The Hut Lane is a great example of that."

Going forward, the company continues to develop plans for additional Hut Lane in-store branding elements and anticipates the roll out in the near future.

Price Performance

Coming to price performance, shares of Yum! Brands’ have inched up 1.1% so far this year compared with the industry's 5.7% growth. Notably, the company has been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. Due to the crisis, Yum! Brands and its franchisees experienced store closures and instances of reduced store-level operations, including lesser operating hours and dining-room closures. Moreover, restaurant traffic has been significantly impacted by social-distancing protocols.

Nevertheless, continuous focus on off-premise channels, strategic investments in digital technology and refranchising efforts are likely to help the company going forward. Moreover, the company has implemented various digital features in mobile and online platforms across all brand segments to enhance guest experience. Also, earnings estimates for 2021 have moved up in the past 60 days, depicting analysts’ optimism regarding the stock’s growth potential.

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

Yum! Brands currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Some better-ranked stocks in the same space include Darden Restaurants, Inc. DRI, Jack in the Box Inc. JACK and Chuy's Holdings, Inc. CHUY, each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Darden 2021 earnings are expected to rise 24.9%.

Jack in the Box has three-five-year earnings per share growth rate of 17%.

Chuy's Holdings has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 126.5%, on average.

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