Buy Tim Hortons, hold on to Chipotle

Article Excerpt

TIM HORTONS $49.52 (Toronto symbol THI; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (905-845-6511; www.timhortons.com; Shares outstanding: 161.4 million; Market cap: $8.0 billion; Dividend yield: 1.4%) operates 3,189 coffee-and-donut shops in Canada and 622 in the U.S. Franchisees operate 99.4% of its stores. Tim Hortons earned $95.5 million in the three months ended July 3, 2011. That’s up 1.5% from $94.1 million a year earlier. The company spent roughly $206 million on share buybacks in the quarter. Due to fewer shares outstanding, earnings per share rose 7.4%, to $0.58 from $0.54. If you exclude a severance payment to its former chief executive officer, the company would have earned $0.61 a share in the latest quarter. Sales rose 9.8%, to $702.8 million from $639.9 million a year earlier. Canadian same-store sales rose 3.8%, because Tim Hortons launched successful new products, like fruit smoothies. U.S. same-store sales rose 6.6%, as customers spent more per visit. The company also raised its prices to cover higher costs for coffee and other…