Burger King Holdings Inc. develops, operates, franchises, and services a worldwide chain of fast-food hamburger restaurants. Burger King is the world's second-largest fast-food hamburger chain as measured by the number of restaurants and system wide sales.

The company is known for its outrageous ads and outrageously oversized, highly caloric meals. Despite the global economic recession, BKC showed good sales growth in 2008. Alas, higher commodity prices and labor costs limited bottom line growth. In late 2008 and early 2009, food and energy prices have moderated, easing some cost pressures.

To increase its top line growth, Burger King is opting to increase its operating hours, provide better service and roll out new products to attract customers looking to downsize from casual dining to better quality fast food (fire grilled ribs, anyone?). It has tied up with sporting teams in NFL and NASCAR and has launched successful ad campaigns.

But where BKC had expected its best growth, abroad, the fast food universe may be waning. On the positive side, because it has a smaller chunk of revenues from international markets than McDonald's, its currency hit was much smaller. In fact, BKC, just told analysts that it expected a 10 cents per store benefit in 2009 from the stronger dollar. The company also reaffirmed its 2009 profit outlook of earnings between $1.44 to $1.49 per share for the year. On March 6, BKC announced a stock repurchase plan, a relative rarity in this market.

Growth of same-store sales are expected to increase by 3-4% in 2009, a nice number considering the bad economy. BKC shares are presently trading in the $21-$22 range, compared to 52-week lows of $6.52 and 52-week highs of $30.95. The average analyst rating on BKC is 1.8 on a scale of 1-5 (1 = strong buy, 5 = strong sell), up .27 points from ratings two months previous. The Piqqem Sentiment rating on BKC is presently a bullish 262 (on a scale of 0 to 400 with zero as lowest rating and 400 as highest) and trending slightly higher in the past two weeks.

The verdict on BKC? In this economy, a company reporting stronger same-store sales, buying back stock, and expressing strong confidence is a rarity worth looking at closely.

Alex Salkever is Director of Research at Piqqem.com, a stock prediction tool and community powered by the Wisdom of Crowds.