Yum! Brands (YUM) Competitors

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

Is YUM or CAKE 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
Yum! Brands	18.11%	-21.01%	24.18%
Cheesecake Factory	4.33%	45.92%	5.93%

Is YUM or CAKE a better dividend stock?

Yum! Brands pays an annual dividend of $2.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. Cheesecake Factory pays an annual dividend of $1.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. Yum! Brands pays out 56.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Cheesecake Factory pays out 33.2% 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 raised its dividend for 8 consecutive years. Cheesecake Factory is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Do insiders & institutionals believe in YUM or CAKE?

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

Do analysts recommend YUM or CAKE?

Yum! Brands currently has a consensus target price of $161.23, suggesting a potential upside of 7.90%. Cheesecake Factory has a consensus target price of $61.94, suggesting a potential upside of 9.51%. 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
Yum! Brands	0 Sell rating(s)	13 Hold rating(s)	10 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.43
Cheesecake Factory	4 Sell rating(s)	5 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.19

Does the media prefer YUM or CAKE?

In the previous week, Yum! Brands had 29 more articles in the media than Cheesecake Factory. MarketBeat recorded 41 mentions for Yum! Brands and 12 mentions for Cheesecake Factory. Yum! Brands' average media sentiment score of 0.98 beat Cheesecake Factory's score of 0.52 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	28 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	11 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Cheesecake Factory	4 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	6 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has better earnings and valuation, YUM or CAKE?

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
Yum! Brands	$7.55B	5.49	$1.49B	$5.07	29.47
Cheesecake Factory	$3.58B	0.79	$156.78M	$3.25	17.40

Which has more risk and volatility, YUM or CAKE?

Yum! Brands has a beta of 0.73, suggesting that its stock price is 27% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cheesecake Factory has a beta of 1.1, suggesting that its stock price is 10% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

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