Starbucks To Crush McDonald's This Year?

McDonald's Corporation MCD is the world's most valuable restaurant company with a valuation just shy of $100 billion. However, according to Mark Kalinowski of Nomura, McDonald's will eventually be dropped to second place. The victor? Starbucks Corporation SBUX.

In a research report on Tuesday, the analyst named Starbucks as the firm's top pick among U.S.-based restaurant names. The coffee chain is forecasted to grow its global store count by 8.4 percent throughout fiscal 2017 and generate more than 5 percent worldwide same-store sales growth.

In addition, Kalinowski is expecting Starbucks to post a double-digit revenue expansion in fiscal 2017 and a 12 percent-plus earnings per share growth.

The analyst also suggested that the buy-side community will become "more comfortable" with the stock given easier comparisons throughout the year.

"It is only a matter of time before Starbucks overtakes McDonald's as the largest market cap restaurant stock, although likely not in 2017," Bloomberg quoted the analyst as stating.

Looking beyond 2017, the analyst believes that Starbucks' total store-count will exceed the coveted 50,000-store level which is higher than any other restaurant chain.