Yum! Brands (YUM) Competitors

Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) and Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) are both large-cap retail/wholesale companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, media sentiment, analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability, dividends and valuation.

Do analysts recommend YUM or SBUX?

Yum! Brands currently has a consensus target price of $157.86, suggesting a potential upside of 5.10%. Starbucks has a consensus target price of $98.23, suggesting a potential upside of 4.30%. Given Yum! Brands' higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Yum! Brands is more favorable than Starbucks.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Yum! Brands	0 Sell rating(s)	13 Hold rating(s)	9 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.41
Starbucks	2 Sell rating(s)	12 Hold rating(s)	15 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.45

Which has more volatility and risk, YUM or SBUX?

Yum! Brands has a beta of 0.74, indicating that its stock price is 26% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Starbucks has a beta of 1.02, indicating that its stock price is 2% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has stronger valuation & earnings, YUM or SBUX?

Starbucks has higher revenue and earnings than Yum! Brands. Yum! Brands is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Starbucks, 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
Yum! Brands	$7.55B	5.53	$1.49B	$5.02	29.92
Starbucks	$36.18B	2.96	$3.76B	$2.76	34.12

Do institutionals and insiders hold more shares of YUM or SBUX?

82.4% of Yum! Brands shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 72.3% of Starbucks shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.3% of Yum! Brands shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Starbucks shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media refer more to YUM or SBUX?

In the previous week, Starbucks had 54 more articles in the media than Yum! Brands. MarketBeat recorded 82 mentions for Starbucks and 28 mentions for Yum! Brands. Yum! Brands' average media sentiment score of 1.03 beat Starbucks' score of 0.72 indicating that Yum! Brands is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Yum! Brands	14 Very Positive mention(s)	6 Positive mention(s)	6 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Starbucks	41 Very Positive mention(s)	13 Positive mention(s)	20 Neutral mention(s)	5 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is YUM or SBUX a better dividend stock?

Yum! Brands pays an annual dividend of $2.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. Starbucks pays an annual dividend of $2.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. Yum! Brands pays out 56.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Starbucks pays out 88.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Yum! Brands has raised its dividend for 8 consecutive years and Starbucks has raised its dividend for 15 consecutive years. Starbucks is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Is YUM or SBUX more profitable?

Yum! Brands has a net margin of 18.42% compared to Starbucks' net margin of 8.61%. Yum! Brands' return on equity of -20.80% beat Starbucks' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Yum! Brands	18.42%	-20.80%	24.37%
Starbucks	8.61%	-42.14%	10.27%

Summary

Yum! Brands beats Starbucks on 10 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.