Restaurant Brands International (QSR.TO)

A good Buy. In restaurant space, valuation isn’t cheap. This is no exception, but their track record of wringing value of assets is very strong. There is obviously some cross selling opportunities and some abilities to consolidate.

They have been performing well, putting up good same store sales. They are making a concerted effort to grow the Tim’s brand outside of North America. It is not cheap, however. If it got really beat up in a market selloff he would take a really good look at it.

A straight forward chart. It is going sideways. You buy as it bounces of the $45 support range. It has resistance of $50 and then $55-7 earlier.

(A Top Pick Sept 11/15. Up 8.12%.) Had felt that the market was going to turn around, so he looked for solid businesses. Last quarter they grew sales per store by 5% on Tim Horton and 6% on Burger King. Very smart management team. A good place to put some money.

They are great operators and are cost effective. He thinks they will execute well.

In this market, you want to own earnings growth and this is a company that will continue to deliver it. Traditionally this was not managed for costs, but they got the costs down to half of what it originally was at Burger King, and will do the same thing at Tim Hortons. They were also able to open 2000 Burger King locations in 4 years internationally, and will do the same thing with Tim’s. Dividend yield of 1.31%.

He passed on this because it is quite expensive. One of the things you find in the Canadian market, especially this kind of market, is that when people look to go away from resources, there are only a small number of companies to choose from and sometimes they get bid up quite expensively.

(A Top Pick Aug 8/14. Up 44.44%.) Formerly Tim Hortons that got taken out. Sold his holdings into the offer.

This appears to be very well-managed by a couple of young Americans. It is steadily doing well after a bit of bottoming.

He loved THI-T. He does not own this one. They were just in a major cost cutting mode. We’ll see if this global franchise expansion actually works out. At these valuations it is a very expensive stock.

The valuation of 30X earnings is extremely expensive. A lot of things have to go right to justify the current stock price compared to the earnings. Has a lot of debt.

Wendy’s is still affiliated with it. He is dissatisfied with the takeover and the new structure. He does not like stocks at 35 times earnings. He took profits from Tim Horton’s and moved on. He is going to watch from the sidelines for a meaningful correction.

(Market Call Minute.) This is very, very expensive, however they still produced a pretty decent quarter. A Hold at best.

(A Top Pick March 27/14. Up 65.01%.) Got a little cold feet and sold his holdings, probably a little too early.

Wendy’s is not involved. They are doing great things in Poland, for example. Tim Hortons now has a chance to be Global.