TIM HORTONS (Toronto symbol THI; www.timhortons.com) operates 3,365 coffee-and-donut shops in Canada, 755 in the U.S. and 18 in the Middle East. The company’s new menu items, such as lattes and panini sandwiches, continue to sell well. In addition, Tim Hortons now offers free Wi-Fi Internet access at its Canadian outlets. That’s helping it compete with bigger fast-food chains like McDonald’s, which is aggressively promoting its coffee in Canada. These factors pushed up Tim Hortons’ sales by 10.3% in the three months ended September 30, 2012, to $802.0 million from $726.9 million a year earlier. Same-store sales rose 2.3% at its U.S. outlets and 1.9% in Canada. [ofie_ad]
Canadian stocks: Home-coffee systems provide new area of growth for Tim Hortons
Earnings rose 2.0%, to $105.7 million from $103.6 million. Because of fewer shares outstanding, earnings per share rose 5.3%, to $0.68 from $0.65. If you disregard certain organizational expenses, the latest earnings would have matched the consensus estimate. Tim Hortons is now taking advantage of fast growing interest in home-coffee systems. It currently has an agreement with Kraft Foods to make and sell plastic cups, called T-Discs, filled with Tim Hortons coffee. Kraft’s Tassimo beverage machine uses the TDiscs to brew a fresh single cup. In the latest edition of Stock Pickers Digest, we look at how the company’s corporate reorganization and search for a new chief executive officer may affect its prospects. We also look at its earnings outlook for 2013. We conclude with our clear buy-hold-sell advice on the stock. COMMENTS PLEASE—Share your investment knowledge and opinions with fellow TSINetwork.ca members Tim Hortons has attracted a fair amount of publicity with its search for a new CEO. How much importance do you attach to leadership and management when you look at stocks to buy? Have you owned stocks that had a serious turnaround, for better or for worse, with a change in management?
