Updating Restaurant Brands International Inc., Transcontinental Inc. and IGM Financial Inc.

Article Excerpt

RESTAURANT BRANDS INTERNATIONAL INC. $83 (Toronto symbol QSR; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 463.1 million; Market cap: $38.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 9.0; 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 16,253 Burger King, 4,680 Tim Hortons (coffee and donuts) and 2,809 Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen (fried chicken) outlets in over 100 countries. In the three months ended September 30, 2017, the company’s sales rose 12.4%, to $1.21 billion from $1.08 billion a year earlier (all amounts except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). That gain is mainly due to the purchase of the Popeyes chain in March 2017 for $1.64 billion. If you exclude costs related to the acquisition, the company earned $275.6 million in the quarter. That’s a gain of 36.8% from $201.4 million a year earlier. Due to more shares outstanding, per-share earnings rose 34.9%, to $0.58 from $0.43. Restaurant Brands also…