Yum! Brands (YUM) Competitors

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

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 1.7%. Yum! Brands pays an annual dividend of $2.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. Cheesecake Factory pays out 33.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Yum! Brands pays out 56.6% 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. Yum! Brands is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Does the media favor CAKE or YUM?

In the previous week, Cheesecake Factory had 4 more articles in the media than Yum! Brands. MarketBeat recorded 21 mentions for Cheesecake Factory and 17 mentions for Yum! Brands. Yum! Brands' average media sentiment score of 1.09 beat Cheesecake Factory's score of 0.40 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)	5 Positive mention(s)	9 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Yum! Brands	10 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do analysts rate CAKE or YUM?

Cheesecake Factory currently has a consensus target price of $55.44, indicating a potential downside of 14.41%. Yum! Brands has a consensus target price of $157.86, indicating a potential upside of 5.37%. Given Yum! Brands' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Yum! Brands is more favorable than Cheesecake Factory.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cheesecake Factory	4 Sell rating(s)	5 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.19
Yum! Brands	0 Sell rating(s)	13 Hold rating(s)	9 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.41

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

94.5% of Cheesecake Factory shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 82.4% of Yum! Brands shares are held by institutional investors. 8.4% of Cheesecake Factory shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Yum! Brands shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has stronger valuation & earnings, 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	0.90	$156.78M	$3.19	20.30
Yum! Brands	$7.55B	5.52	$1.49B	$5.02	29.84

Which has more risk & volatility, CAKE or YUM?

Cheesecake Factory has a beta of 1.16, indicating that its stock price is 16% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Yum! Brands has a beta of 0.74, indicating that its stock price is 26% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is CAKE or YUM more profitable?

Yum! Brands has a net margin of 18.42% compared to Cheesecake Factory's net margin of 4.33%. Cheesecake Factory's return on equity of 46.06% beat Yum! Brands' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Cheesecake Factory	4.33%	46.06%	5.98%
Yum! Brands	18.42%	-20.80%	24.37%

Summary

Yum! Brands beats Cheesecake Factory on 13 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.