Popeyes acquistion boosts profit

Article Excerpt

RESTAURANT BRANDS INTERNATIONAL INC. $62 (New York symbol QSR; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 463.1 million; Market cap: $28.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 6.6; Dividend yield: 1.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.rbi.com) recently bought the Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen chain for $1.64 billion. As a result, overall sales in the second quarter of 2017 gained 8.9%, to $1.13 billion from $1.04 billion a year earlier. Same-store sales rose 3.9% at Burger King, but fell 0.8% at Tim Hortons and 2.7% at Popeyes. Earnings in the quarter jumped 25.6%, to $241.7 million, or $0.51 a share, from $192.4 million, or $0.41. In October, the company will raise its quarterly dividend by 5.3%. The new annual rate of $0.80 yields 1.3%. Restaurant Brands trades at a somewhat high 26.1 times the $2.38 a share it should earn for all of 2017. Restaurant Brands is a hold. hold…