Bacon and Cheese Whopper at a Burger King restaurant.
Dreamstime.com
Restaurant Brands International stock is underperforming the market so far this year, but Marc Lemann, the newest director at the parent of Burger King, Popeyes, and Tim Horton’s, just made the largest insider share purchase in years.
Restaurant Brands (ticker: QSR) stock has managed a gain of 6.1% so far in 2021, while the S&P 500 index has risen 15.9. The latest earnings report, for the first quarter, was strong, following a disappointing fourth-quarter performance.
Lemann paid $1 million for 15,000 shares on June 18, the day after it was announced that he had been elected to Restaurant Brands’ board. The average per-share price was $67.15. According to a form Lemann filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, he made the purchase through an entity of which he is the sole owner.
Restaurant Brands didn’t make Lemann available for comment.
The new director is an investor and entrepreneur, and a son of Brazilian billionaire Jorge Paulo Lemann, a co-founder of private-equity firm 3G Capital, which formed Restaurant Brands in 2014. Affiliates of 3G control a 30.8% voting stake in the company.Marc Lemann wasn’t required to buy so much Restaurant Brands stock, and so quickly. According to the company’s guidelines, non-employee directors are required to own Restaurant Brands stock with a market value of five times the annual base cash retainer within five years of being elected. The annual base cash retainer for non-management directors is $50,000.
Inside Scoop is a regular Barron’s feature covering stock transactions by corporate executives and board members—so-called insiders—as well as large shareholders, politicians, and other prominent figures. Due to their insider status, these investors are required to disclose stock trades with the Securities and Exchange Commission or other regulatory groups.
Write to Ed Lin at [email protected] and follow @BarronsEdLin.
