QSR has big growth plans

Article Excerpt

RESTAURANT BRANDS INTERNATIONAL $68.73 (New York symbol QSR; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (905-845-6511; www.rbi.com; Shares o/s: 478.0 million; Market cap: $32.9 billion; Dividend yield: 2.9%) has 17,796 Burger King, 4,846 Tim Hortons (coffee and donuts) and 3,102 Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen (crispy fried chicken) outlets in over 100 countries. The company now plans to expand to over 40,000 outlets in the next eight to 10 years. To reach that goal, it aims to open about 1,400 restaurants annually; the company added over 1,300 new locations in both 2017 and 2018. Meanwhile, under a new partnership with Beyond Meat Inc. (Nasdaq symbol BYND), Restaurant Brands is testing plant-based breakfast sausage sandwiches at about 60 of its Tim Hortons outlets in Toronto. In addition, Burger King is testing plant-based burgers from Impossible Foods in three U.S. cities. Restaurant Brands is still a hold. hold…