Dividend.com: Clorox Cleans Up

Burger King Should Hold Up Well as Restaurants Feel Pinch

Burger King (BKC Quote) just reported that it missed its first quarter EPS estimates by a penny, as net income rose 2% to $50 million, or 36 cents, from $49 million, or 35 cents in the year-ago quarter.

The company is blaming higher commodity, remodeling and acquisition startup costs for the miss. Fortunately prices for beef, cheese and oils have been coming down from the end of the summer, so the commodity effect should dissipate.

Same-store sales, or sales at locations open at least a year, rose 3.6% worldwide. The company's sales should hold up fairly well as consumers have cut back on spending in recent months and have been avoiding more expensive sit-down restaurants.

Management is reaffirming its 2009 EPS outlook of $1.54 to $1.59. The consensus is for $1.56.

We have avoided shares of BKC since our early June coverage began, and shares were trading at $28.25. The company has a dividend yield of 1.23%, based on last night's closing stock price. We think the shares of BKC are fairly valued, but we prefer shares of McDonald's(MCD Quote) as our investment idea.

Burger King is not recommended at this time, holding a Dividend.com Rating of 3.2 out of 5 stars.

Apartment Investment & Management Takes Hurricane Hit

Apartment Investment & Management(AIV Quote) just reported lower quarterly funds from operations, due in part to hurricane damage charges.

The company is coming off some interesting news that was reported earlier this month, where there were sales of common stock pledged to secure margin debt by two family partnerships affiliated with Chairman, President and Chief Executive Terry Considine. Roughly 600,000 shares have been involuntarily sold to date.