Restaurant Brands International has been getting more attractive, with big operational changes underway behind the scenes. x.comÂ
Trevor Scott
Founder & Portfolio Manager of Tidefall Capital Management
Dine Brands looks like a bargain at 8.1x earnings versus a normal 13.7x, with 12% consensus growth in 2027, leaving more room to run. Per the activist investor that took a stake, Applebee's and IHOP now have to prove the recovery is real through traffic, margins and cash flow. x.comÂ
The Cheesecake Factory at 25 times next-twelve-month earnings looks attractive as a short. Restaurant valuations can be highly cyclical, though past fast-casual names reached 55 times earnings with 20% growth. x.com x.comÂ
Restaurant Brands' strong defensive profile masks a weak growth engine, a combination that is a trap. Restaurants hold up well in a recession, but QSR's long-term upside looks thin, even as @ErnestWongBWM calls Burger King's 8.6% US comp a narrative violation. x.comÂ
Asset-light businesses that take a cut of every transaction have one of the most powerful business models, pairing low capex and high margins with steady cash flow from royalties and fees. That is the basis for a portfolio of McDonald's, Uber, Texas Pacific Land, Visa, Restaurant Brands International, Marriott, Franco-Nevada, CME Group and Arm, built to test whether such businesses can outperform the market. x.comÂ
Domino's cannot stay this cheap for long, trading at 17 times earnings, a decade-low valuation, while its store count, earnings per share and sales all grow at once. Something has to give. x.comÂ
Red Robin delivered another strong quarter, and with amazing leadership it should be worth more than Wendy's by 2027. x.comÂ
Domino's Pizza is a global logistics, software and franchise platform whose economics improve as the network grows. Franchisees fund expansion while Domino's collects high-margin royalties, and scale brings data, ad efficiency and buying power; it has beaten Alphabet over 20 years. As a rough thought exercise, 10% annual growth from about $17 EPS implies over $100 in 20 years, and at 15-25x a business potentially worth about $2,000 a share. Franchisee economics and aggregators are risks. x.com … Show more
Shake Shack is starting to look cheap after a sharp selloff on beef-cost and consumer worries, despite solid growth and margins. Q2 revenue grew 17.2%, restaurant-level margins reached 23% and free cash flow is positive. It owns no real estate, so it is a bet on the brand, restaurant economics and expansion across its 703 restaurants. The key question is whether those margins hold as it grows. x.comÂ
The Cheesecake Factory now looks more like a momentum trade than a genuine long-term compounder, with its valuation hard to justify. The stock is up 118% this year after an updated app with a free slice of cheesecake lifted traffic and accelerated revenue growth from 4% to 7%, with quarterly revenue topping $1 billion for the first time. But its P/E has surged from 13 to 32 times, and 21 times earnings three years out is difficult to justify for a restaurant business. x.comÂ
McDonald's is trading at its highest free-cash-flow yield in a decade, outside the COVID crash. x.comÂ