Yum China (YUMC) Competitors

Yum China (NYSE:YUMC) and Hilton Worldwide (NYSE:HLT) 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 valuation, profitability, institutional ownership, media sentiment, earnings, risk, community ranking, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Do insiders and institutionals believe in YUMC or HLT?

85.6% of Yum China shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 95.9% of Hilton Worldwide shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.4% of Yum China shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.6% of Hilton Worldwide shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Do analysts prefer YUMC or HLT?

Yum China presently has a consensus target price of $48.70, suggesting a potential upside of 12.32%. Hilton Worldwide has a consensus target price of $242.56, suggesting a potential upside of 3.63%. Given Yum China's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Yum China is more favorable than Hilton Worldwide.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Yum China	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.50
Hilton Worldwide	0 Sell rating(s)	12 Hold rating(s)	6 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.33

Is YUMC or HLT more profitable?

Hilton Worldwide has a net margin of 13.74% compared to Yum China's net margin of 8.06%. Yum China's return on equity of 13.83% beat Hilton Worldwide's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Yum China	8.06%	13.83%	7.88%
Hilton Worldwide	13.74%	-54.47%	10.97%

Does the MarketBeat Community favor YUMC or HLT?

Hilton Worldwide received 421 more outperform votes than Yum China when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 69.79% of users gave Hilton Worldwide an outperform vote while only 64.35% of users gave Yum China an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Yum China	Outperform Votes 399 64.35%	Underperform Votes 221 35.65%
Hilton Worldwide	Outperform Votes 820 69.79%	Underperform Votes 355 30.21%

Which has preferable earnings and valuation, YUMC or HLT?

Hilton Worldwide has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Yum China. Yum China is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Hilton Worldwide, 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 China	$11.30B	1.44	$911M	$2.33	18.61
Hilton Worldwide	$11.17B	5.02	$1.54B	$6.15	38.06

Is YUMC or HLT a better dividend stock?

Yum China pays an annual dividend of $0.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. Hilton Worldwide pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.3%. Yum China pays out 41.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Hilton Worldwide pays out 9.8% 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.

Does the media prefer YUMC or HLT?

In the previous week, Hilton Worldwide had 13 more articles in the media than Yum China. MarketBeat recorded 38 mentions for Hilton Worldwide and 25 mentions for Yum China. Hilton Worldwide's average media sentiment score of 0.97 beat Yum China's score of 0.61 indicating that Hilton Worldwide is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Yum China	10 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	8 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Hilton Worldwide	21 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	7 Neutral mention(s)	3 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has more volatility and risk, YUMC or HLT?

Yum China has a beta of 0.32, suggesting that its stock price is 68% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Hilton Worldwide has a beta of 1.19, suggesting that its stock price is 19% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Hilton Worldwide beats Yum China on 15 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.