QSR News Report — 2026-02-14

Overview

Sources Breakdown

Key Themes Today

1. Mixed Q4 2025 Earnings Performance

• Restaurant Brands International (QSR) reported total revenue of $2.46 billion for Q4 2025, a 7.4% increase from $2.29 billion year-on-year, narrowly beating Wall Street's expectations (Yahoo, Art 8, 13).
• Despite the revenue growth, the company's quarterly profit declined, and the quarter was characterized by margin compression (Yahoo, Art 8, 13).
• Non-GAAP profit of $0.96 per share was 1.3% above analysts' consensus estimates (Yahoo, Art 13).
• Executives highlighted steady system-wide sales growth, improving trends at Burger King U.S., and strong momentum across the international segment during the earnings call (Yahoo, Art 11).

2. Analyst Price Target Reductions

• Scotiabank maintained a "Sector Perform" rating on QSR but lowered its price target from $74 to $71 (Benzinga, Art 5).
• Barclays maintained an "Overweight" rating but reduced its price target from $86 to $82 (Benzinga, Art 7).
• TD Cowen maintained a "Hold" rating on QSR and lowered its price target from $74 to $72 (Benzinga, Art 12).
• These multiple price target adjustments from analysts signal a more cautious outlook on QSR's valuation despite some positive earnings aspects.

3. Brand-Specific Challenges and Strategic Initiatives

• Burger King, a key QSR brand, has struggled in recent years, falling behind Wendy's, and is fighting to regain its position, including addressing closing locations (Yahoo, Art 2).
• To counter past struggles and improve trends, Burger King is bringing back a fan-favorite Whopper (Yahoo, Art 2, 11).
• Popeyes saw comparable sales decline by 4.9% in Q4, prompting efforts to improve restaurant-level reliability and targeted support for underperforming restaurants (Yahoo, Art 9).
• Tim Hortons Canada showed a positive trend with a return to net unit growth (Yahoo, Art 11).

4. Industry-Wide Cost Pressures

• Restaurants, particularly burger chains like Burger King, are confronting "unprecedented high levels of beef inflation," which has become a significant headache (Yahoo, Art 4).
• Shake Shack Chief Executive Rob Lynch confirmed the impact of high ground-beef prices on the fast-casual burger chain, indicating a broader industry challenge (Yahoo, Art 4).
• Competitor Wendy's also reported navigating mounting cost pressures in its Q4 earnings, reinforcing the widespread nature of this issue (Yahoo, Art 6).

Top Articles by Impact

Bullish

1. Restaurant Brands International Q4 Earnings Call Highlights (Yahoo)
   • This matters as it directly from management highlights positive aspects such as steady system-wide sales growth, Tim Hortons unit growth, and improving Burger King U.S. trends.
2. QSR Q4 Deep Dive: Margin Compression and International Expansion Define the Quarter (Yahoo)
   • This matters as it confirms QSR beat Wall Street's revenue and non-GAAP profit expectations for Q4 CY2025, indicating stronger financial performance than anticipated in some areas.
3. Burger King brings back fan-favorite Whopper (Yahoo)
   • This matters as it signals a proactive strategic move by a key QSR brand to address past struggles and potentially boost sales and customer engagement.

Bearish

1. Restaurants Confront a High Beef-Price Headache (Yahoo)
   • This matters as it highlights a significant, industry-wide cost pressure from "unprecedented high levels of beef inflation" directly impacting QSR's burger chains and their profitability.
2. Scotiabank Maintains Sector Perform on Restaurant Brands Intl, Lowers Price Target to $71 (Benzinga)
   • This matters as it represents one of several analyst price target reductions, signaling a more cautious outlook on QSR's future valuation.
3. Burger King parent RBI posts higher Q4 revenues but quarterly profit declines (Yahoo)
   • This matters as it reveals a critical weakness in QSR's Q4 performance, where increased revenue did not translate into higher profits, indicating margin compression.
4. Popeyes hopes restaurant-level reliability will turn sales around (Yahoo)
   • This matters as it highlights a significant Q4 comparable sales decline of 4.9% for a major QSR brand, indicating operational challenges that need to be addressed.

Risk Factors

• High Beef Prices: "Unprecedented high levels of beef inflation" are hurting burger chains, directly impacting QSR's Burger King brand and overall margins (Yahoo, Art 4).
• Margin Compression: Despite a 7.4% increase in revenue, QSR's quarterly profit declined in Q4 2025, indicating significant pressure on profit margins (Yahoo, Art 8, 13).
• Brand Underperformance & Competition: Burger King has struggled, falling behind Wendy's, and Popeyes saw a 4.9% decline in comparable sales in Q4, highlighting competitive pressures and operational challenges within key brands (Yahoo, Art 2, 9).
• Analyst Price Target Cuts: Multiple analysts (Scotiabank, Barclays, TD Cowen) have lowered their price targets for QSR, suggesting a more cautious outlook on the stock's future valuation (Benzinga, Art 5, 7, 12).

Cross-Source Consensus Signals

STRONG SIGNAL: QSR's Q4 2025 earnings performance, characterized by revenue growth but also profit decline and margin compression, is a strong signal, alongside multiple analyst price target reductions (Yahoo Art 8, 11, 13; Benzinga Art 5, 7, 12). MODERATE SIGNAL: Challenges and strategic initiatives for specific QSR brands like Burger King (struggling, Whopper comeback) and Popeyes (sales decline, reliability efforts), as well as industry-wide cost pressures, particularly high beef prices (Yahoo Art 2, 4, 9, 11). WEAK SIGNAL: Broader market trends such as the S&P 500 performance or general dividend highlights are mentioned but not directly tied to QSR's specific operational or financial news (SeekingAlpha Art 3; ChartMill Art 10).

=== OVERALL SENTIMENT === BEARISH

=== ONE-LINE SUMMARY === Restaurant Brands International reported mixed Q4 2025 results with revenue growth but declining profit and margin compression, leading to multiple analyst price target reductions amidst industry-wide high beef prices and brand-specific challenges for Burger King and Popeyes.