Yum! Brands (YUM) Competitors

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

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 1.8%. 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. Yum! Brands is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Which has better valuation and earnings, 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	$7.91B	5.13	$1.49B	$5.07	28.82
Cheesecake Factory	$3.67B	0.80	$156.78M	$3.25	18.05

Do analysts rate YUM or CAKE?

Yum! Brands currently has a consensus target price of $161.23, indicating a potential upside of 10.35%. Cheesecake Factory has a consensus target price of $61.94, indicating a potential upside of 5.61%. Given Yum! Brands' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Yum! Brands is more favorable than Cheesecake Factory.

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

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%

Does the media favor YUM or CAKE?

In the previous week, Yum! Brands had 30 more articles in the media than Cheesecake Factory. MarketBeat recorded 41 mentions for Yum! Brands and 11 mentions for Cheesecake Factory. Yum! Brands' average media sentiment score of 1.00 beat Cheesecake Factory's score of 0.89 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	26 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	10 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Cheesecake Factory	4 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has more risk & volatility, YUM or CAKE?

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

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

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

Summary

Yum! Brands beats Cheesecake Factory on 14 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.