Yum! Brands (YUM) Competitors

Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) and Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) are both retail/wholesale companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, profitability, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations and media sentiment.

Is CAKE or YUM a better dividend stock?

Cheesecake Factory pays an annual dividend of $1.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. Yum! Brands pays an annual dividend of $2.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. Cheesecake Factory pays out 33.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Yum! Brands pays out 56.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Yum! Brands has increased its dividend for 8 consecutive years. Cheesecake Factory is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Do analysts recommend CAKE or YUM?

Cheesecake Factory currently has a consensus price target of $61.94, indicating a potential upside of 11.60%. Yum! Brands has a consensus price target of $161.32, indicating a potential upside of 7.11%. Given Cheesecake Factory's higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Cheesecake Factory is more favorable than Yum! Brands.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cheesecake Factory	4 Sell rating(s)	5 Hold rating(s)	8 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.24
Yum! Brands	0 Sell rating(s)	13 Hold rating(s)	11 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.46

Do insiders and institutionals have more ownership in CAKE or YUM?

94.5% of Cheesecake Factory shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 82.4% of Yum! Brands shares are owned by institutional investors. 8.1% of Cheesecake Factory shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Yum! Brands shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media prefer CAKE or YUM?

In the previous week, Yum! Brands had 22 more articles in the media than Cheesecake Factory. MarketBeat recorded 25 mentions for Yum! Brands and 3 mentions for Cheesecake Factory. Yum! Brands' average media sentiment score of 0.89 beat Cheesecake Factory's score of 0.72 indicating that Yum! Brands is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Cheesecake Factory	2 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Yum! Brands	12 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	10 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is CAKE or YUM more profitable?

Yum! Brands has a net margin of 18.11% compared to Cheesecake Factory's net margin of 4.33%. Cheesecake Factory's return on equity of 45.92% beat Yum! Brands' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Cheesecake Factory	4.33%	45.92%	5.93%
Yum! Brands	18.11%	-21.01%	24.18%

Which has more risk & volatility, CAKE or YUM?

Cheesecake Factory has a beta of 1.06, suggesting that its stock price is 6% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Yum! Brands has a beta of 0.72, suggesting that its stock price is 28% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has better earnings & valuation, CAKE or YUM?

Yum! Brands has higher revenue and earnings than Cheesecake Factory. Cheesecake Factory is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Yum! Brands, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Cheesecake Factory	$3.58B	0.77	$156.78M	$3.25	17.08
Yum! Brands	$7.55B	5.54	$1.49B	$5.07	29.71

Summary

Yum! Brands beats Cheesecake Factory on 12 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.