Starbucks to Top McDonald’s as Restaurant King, Analyst Says

  • Coffee chain could evenutally have more than 50,000 cafes
  • Nomura’s Kalinowski names Starbucks his 2017 restaurant pick

An employee pours coffee from a round glass jug into a mug at a Starbucks Corp. coffee shop in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on Monday, Oct. 24, 2016.

Photographer: Taylor Weidman/Bloomberg
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Starbucks Corp. is poised to overtake McDonald’s Corp. as the world’s most valuable restaurant company, and the coffee giant could ultimately have 50,000 locations -- more than any current chain.

That’s the prediction of Nomura analyst Mark Kalinowski, who named Starbucks his top restaurant stock for 2017 in a report on Tuesday. He estimates that the company will increase its worldwide restaurant count by 8.4 percent this year and boost same-store sales by more than 5 percent.