Its plan will close the gap in Brazil

Article Excerpt

RESTAURANT BRANDS INTERNATIONAL INC. $63 (New York symbol QSR; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 467.6 million; Market cap: $29.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 5.6; Dividend yield: 3.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.rbi.com) continues to rapidly expand its Burger King outlets in Brazil. On average, the chain opens a new site in Brazil every three to four days. With 736 openings since 2011, the company continues to quickly gain on McDonald’s (see left) in terms of the number of Brazilian locations. That rival opened its first restaurant in Rio de Janeiro in 1979; McDonald’s now has 939 locations across the country. Burger King’s low-priced, fast-food menu is increasingly popular as Brazil’s economy struggles to recover from a recession. What’s more, with restaurant chains running only 10% of the country’s restaurants, compared with 60% in the U.S., there’s lots of room to expand. Restaurant Brands is still a hold. hold…