Quick Service Restaurants Are Winning This Quarter

Quick service restaurant stocks are hot this quarter, at least according to analysts at Citi.

Citi's Gregory Badishkanian commented in a brief research report that the battle between McDonald's Corporation MCD, Wendys Co WEN and Burger King's parent company Restaurant Brands International Inc QSR hasn't resulted in one clear winner, rather, all three burger chains are winning.

Badishkanian added that Restaurant Brands' trends remain favorable for the big three, as each chain is likely benefiting from a low- to mid-single-digit same-store sales growth through mid-May. The analyst did note it is not known where the share gains are coming from, but they may be coming from the casual dining space, which remains "tough."

Here is a summary of how the big three burger chains performed in their most recent earnings report.

McDonald's

McDonald's earned $1.47 per share in its first quarter on revenue of $5.68 billion.
• Analysts were expecting McDonald's to earn $1.33 per share on revenue of $5.51 billion.
• Shares of McDonald's opened for trading at $138.14 following the earnings report and closed at $148.19 on Monday.

Wendy's

Wendy's earned $0.09 per share in the first quarter on revenue of $285.8 million.
• Analysts were expecting Wendy's to earn $0.08 per share on revenue of $282.6 million.
• Shares of Wendy's opened for trading at $15.49 following the earnings report and closed at $16.08 on Monday.

Restaurant Brands

Restaurant Brands earned $0.21 per share in the first quarter on revenue of $1.0 billion.
• Analysts were expecting Restaurant Brands to earn $0.35 per share on revenue of $989.8 million.
• Shares of Restaurant Brands opened for trading at $76.69 following the earnings report and closed at $81.62 on Monday.
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