Two restaurants, two kinds of risk

Article Excerpt

RESTAURANT BRANDS INTERNATIONAL $54.97 (New York symbol QSR; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (905-845-6511; www.rbi.com; Shares outstanding: 467.0 million; Market cap: $25.7 billion; Dividend yield: 1.3%) took its current form on December 12, 2014, after Burger King Worldwide acquired Tim Hortons. There are now 4,613 Tim Hortons stores and 15,738 Burger King outlets in 100 countries. Restaurant Brands is the world’s third-largest fast-food operator, after McDonald’s (No.1) and Yum Brands (No.2). Thanks to more savings from the December 2014 merger of Tim Hortons and Burger King, the company earned $208.3 million, or $0.44 a share, in the quarter ended September 30, 2016. That’s a 36.6% jump from $152.5 million, or $0.32, a year earlier. Overall sales rose 5.1% in the quarter, to $1.11 billion from $1.06 billion. Tim Hortons’ same-store sales rose just 0.2%, but Burger King’s same-store sales improved 2.8%. The company holds cash of $1.5 billion, or $3.21 a share. Its long-term debt of $8.4 billion is a manageable 32.7% of its market cap. With…