Popeyes looks like a good fit

Article Excerpt

RESTAURANT BRANDS INTERNATIONAL INC. $73 (Toronto symbol QSR; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 460.9 million; Market cap: $33.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 8.2; Dividend yield: 1.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.rbi.com) is the world’s third-largest fast-food operator, after McDonald’s (No. 1) and Yum Brands (No. 2); it has 15,243 Burger King outlets and 4,492 Tim Hortons stores in 100 countries. Restaurant Brands has agreed to buy Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen Inc. (Nasdaq symbol PLKI) for $1.64 billion (all amounts except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). Popeyes began operations 45 years ago in New Orleans as a Southern-fried “Chicken on the Run” restaurant. The company has since expanded to more than 2,600 stores, mostly in the U.S. Restaurant Brands sees lots of potential for Popeyes to expand further in the U.S. and internationally, especially in China where it has no stores. The company can comfortably afford this purchase. As of December 31, 2016, it held cash of $1.5 billion, or $3.21 a share…