Here’s our Pick of the Month

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TIM HORTONS $58.56 (Toronto symbol THI; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (905-845-6511; www.timhortons.com; Shares outstanding: 153.1 million; Market cap: $8.8 billion; Dividend yield: 1.8%) operates 3,468 coffee-anddonut shops in Canada, 807 in the U.S. and 29 in the Persian Gulf. In the three months ended June 30, 2013, Tim Hortons’ sales rose 1.9%, to $800.1 million from $785.6 million a year earlier. Same-store sales increased 1.5% at its Canadian outlets and 1.4% in the U.S. Earnings per share rose 17.4%, to $0.81 from $0.69. The company continues to benefit from new menu items it has recently introduced, such as panini sandwiches. It also raised its prices to cover higher ingredient costs. U.S.-based activist investor Scout Capital Management now owns 5.5% of the Tim Hortons’ shares, and another investment firm, Highfields Capital Management, holds about 4%. Tim Hortons has rejected these investors’ demands to slow its expansion in the highly competitive U.S. market and to transfer its real estate holdings to a new…