Restaurant Brands International Inc is seeing three unique catalysts that led Oppenheimer to upgrade the stock to Outperform with a $70 price target. Announcements of Unit Growth Acceleration Oppenheimer's Brian Bittner analysis shows that the company’s accretive cap-structure opportunities aren’t appreciated. Bittner believes Restaurant Brands recent Popeye’s acquisition could drive the company’s unit growth to the 7 percent range, well above its competitors 2.5 percent average. Popeye’s Acquisition The $1.8 billion acquisition of the No. 2 chicken player Popeye’s provides a massive new growth pipeline for Restaurant Brands already big global network, consisting of 22,000 units. Popeye’s, with 2,700 units lags far behind KFC’s 21,000 units worldwide. According to Oppenheimer, Popeye’s footprint is underpenetrated despite its No. 2 status. “When 3G acquired BK in 2010, unit growth was only 150/year vs 700+/year now. We expect similar enhancements to Popeye’s under QSR’s global franchisee roster, which could boost QSR’s unit growth to ~7%,” said Bittner.Source