Acquisition lifts RBI’s sales

Article Excerpt

RESTAURANT BRANDS INTERNATIONAL INC. $95 is a buy for aggressive investors. The fast-food operator (Toronto symbol QSR, Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 450.8 million; Market cap: $42.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.9; Dividend yield: 3.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.rbi.com) has 31,525 outlets in over 100 countries, comprised of Burger King, Tim Hortons (coffee and donuts), Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen (fried chicken) and Firehouse Subs locations. In May 2024, the company acquired the remaining 85% of Carrols Restaurant Group (Nasdaq symbol TAST) that it didn’t already own for $974 million, which included $431 million of Carrols debt (all amounts except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). Carrols owns 1,020 Burger King and 60 Popeyes restaurants in the U.S. Restaurant Brands will also invest $500 million to modernize 600 of those Burger King locations. The purchase lifted Restaurant Brands’ overall sales in the quarter ended September 30, 2024, by 24.7%, to $2.29 billion from $1.84 billion a year earlier. Same-store sales rose 2.3% at Tim…