Hedge Funds’ Favorite Restaurants Include McDonald’s Corp. (MCD), Yum! Brands Inc. (YUM), and Starbucks Corporation (SBUX)

2. Yum! Brands Inc. (NYSE:YUM)

Investors with Long Positions (as of June 30): 59

Aggregate Value of Investors’ Holdings (as of June 30): $4.06 Billion

Moving on to Yum! Brands Inc. (NYSE:YUM), there were 14 more hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey with positions in the company at the end of the latest quarter At the same time, the value of these positions more than doubled during the quarter, climbing from $1.49 billion. Unquestionably, China’s economic slowdown and the devaluation of its currency will impact the company’s business and financial performance quite significantly, given that Yum China generates almost 40% of the company’s total operating profit. The company’s stock performance reflects these fears, as the stock embarked on a downtrend in late-June. Nevertheless, the shares of Yum! Brands have gained 9% since the beginning of the year and nearly 80% over the last five-year period. Just recently, Sam Su, the long-time China CEO, announced his plans to retire, to eventually be replaced by Micky Pant. In the meantime, both Dan Loeb’s Third Point and Keith Meister’s Corvex Capital were betting heavily on Yum! Brands Inc. (NYSE:YUM) in the second quarter.

1. McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE:MCD)

Investors with Long Positions (as of June 30): 81

Aggregate Value of Investors’ Holdings (as of June 30): $6.28 Billion

We will now turn our attention to McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE:MCD), the world’s largest chain of fast-food restaurants. The number of hedge funds within our database that had stakes in McDonald’s at the end of the second quarter declined by eight funds during the three month period. Similarly, the value of the stakes decreased froh m $6.83 billion over the quarter. Even though the shares of McDonald’s have gained only slightly over 1% year-to-date, the stock performed very well during the financial crisis, returning 55.6% between 2007 and 2009 (outperforming the broader market by 70 percentage points). However, the company has been struggling to increase its sales in the U.S. market, with same-store sales in the region dropping for seven straight quarters. Earlier this year, the company appointed Steve Easterbrook as Chief Executive Officer in an attempt to revitalize the weakening company, so one can hope for improved results and an improved stock performance from the company in the future. Mason Hawkins’ Southeastern Asset Management is certainly expecting that to be the case, being the top shareholder in McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE:MCD) within our database, holding a 9.87 million-share position.

Disclosure: None