Topic: How To Invest

Pat: Would you recommend Dunkin’ Brands Group? Thanks.

Article Excerpt

A: Dunkin’ Brands Group Inc., $44.22, symbol DNKN on Nasdaq (Shares outstanding: 91.6 million; Market cap: $4.1 billion; www.dunkinbrands.com), has two main restaurant chains: Dunkin’ Donuts, which supplies 75% of its revenue, and Baskin-Robbins ice cream (25%). The Massachusetts-based company has 11,833 Dunkin’ Donuts outlets and 7,638 Baskin-Robbins locations in 60 countries. Franchisees operate nearly all of these stores. Dunkin’ Brands first sold shares to the public at $19.00 each on July 27, 2011. The company’s sales rose 29.1%, from $628.2 million in 2011 to $810.9 million in 2015. Earnings jumped 84.8%, from $101.7 million to $187.9 million. Due to fewer shares outstanding, per-share earnings gained 105.3%, from $0.94 to $1.93. In the three months ended March 26, 2016, earnings before one-time items rose 1.0%, to $40.7 million from $40.3 million a year earlier. The company spent $30.0 million on share buybacks in the quarter. Due to fewer shares outstanding, earnings per share rose 10.0%, to $0.44 from $0.40. Sales in the quarter rose…