Fast-food company Restaurant Brands (NYSE:QSR) reported Q1 CY2026 results beating Wall Street’s revenue expectations, with sales up 7.3% year on year to $2.26 billion. Its non-GAAP profit of $0.86 per share was 4% above analysts’ consensus estimates.
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Restaurant Brands (QSR) Q1 CY2026 Highlights:
- Revenue: $2.26 billion vs analyst estimates of $2.24 billion (7.3% year-on-year growth, 0.9% beat)
- Adjusted EPS: $0.86 vs analyst estimates of $0.83 (4% beat)
- Adjusted EBITDA: $706 million vs analyst estimates of $695.4 million (31.2% margin, 1.5% beat)
- Operating Margin: 26.8%, up from 20.6% in the same quarter last year
- Free Cash Flow Margin: 7.5%, up from 2.6% in the same quarter last year
- Locations: 32,985 at quarter end, up from 32,149 in the same quarter last year
- Same-Store Sales rose 3.2% year on year (0.1% in the same quarter last year)
- Market Capitalization: $28.36 billion
MIAMI, May 6, 2026 /PRNewswire/ - Restaurant Brands International Inc. ("RBI") (NYSE: QSR) (TSX: QSR) (TSX: QSP) today reported financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2026.
Company Overview
Formed through a strategic merger, Restaurant Brands International (NYSE:QSR) is a multinational corporation that owns three iconic fast-food chains: Burger King, Tim Hortons, and Popeyes.
Revenue Growth
A company’s long-term performance is an indicator of its overall quality. Even a bad business can shine for one or two quarters, but a top-tier one grows for years.
With $9.59 billion in revenue over the past 12 months, Restaurant Brands is one of the most widely recognized restaurant chains and benefits from customer loyalty, a luxury many don’t have. Its scale also gives it negotiating leverage with suppliers, enabling it to source its ingredients at a lower cost.
As you can see below, Restaurant Brands’s 8.6% annualized revenue growth over the last seven years was decent as it opened new restaurants and increased sales at existing, established dining locations.
This quarter, Restaurant Brands reported year-on-year revenue growth of 7.3%, and its $2.26 billion of revenue exceeded Wall Street’s estimates by 0.9%.
Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 3.3% over the next 12 months, a deceleration versus the last seven years. This projection doesn't excite us and suggests its menu offerings will face some demand challenges.
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Restaurant Performance
Number of Restaurants
Restaurant Brands sported 32,985 locations in the latest quarter. Over the last two years, it has opened new restaurants quickly, averaging 3.2% annual growth. This was faster than the broader restaurant sector. Additionally, one dynamic making expansion more seamless is the company’s franchise model, where franchisees are primarily responsible for opening new restaurants while Restaurant Brands provides support.
When a chain opens new restaurants, it usually means it’s investing for growth because there’s healthy demand for its meals and there are markets where its concepts have few or no locations.
Same-Store Sales
A company's restaurant base only paints one part of the picture. When demand is high, it makes sense to open more. But when demand is low, it’s prudent to close some locations and use the money in other ways. Same-store sales is an industry measure of whether revenue is growing at those existing restaurants and is driven by customer visits (often called traffic) and the average spending per customer (ticket).
Restaurant Brands’s demand rose over the last two years and slightly outpaced the industry. On average, the company’s same-store sales have grown by 2.2% per year. This performance suggests its rollout of new restaurants could be beneficial for shareholders. When a chain has demand, more locations should help it reach more customers and boost revenue growth.
In the latest quarter, Restaurant Brands’s same-store sales rose 3.2% year on year. This growth was an acceleration from its historical levels, which is always an encouraging sign.
Key Takeaways from Restaurant Brands’s Q1 Results
It was good to see Restaurant Brands narrowly top analysts’ revenue expectations this quarter on in line same-store sales. EPS also beat. Overall, this print had some key positives. The stock remained flat at $81.65 immediately after reporting.
Is Restaurant Brands an attractive investment opportunity right now? What happened in the latest quarter matters, but not as much as longer-term business quality and valuation, when deciding whether to invest in this stock. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here (it’s free).