By Michael Dabaie

Restaurant Brands International Inc. shares rose in Friday trading.

U.S.-listed shares were up 2% to $69.33 in afternoon trading and shares in Toronto were up 2% to C$84.95.

The company before the market open reported first-quarter earnings that beat analyst estimates.

The quick-service restaurant company, which owns the Tim Hortons, Burger King and Popeyes brands, reported first-quarter earnings per share of 58 cents, up from 48 cents in the year-ago period.

Adjusted EPS came to 55 cents, beating the FactSet consensus forecast for 51 cents.

Revenue was $1.26 billion, up from $1.23 billion a year earlier. The FactSet consensus forecast was for $1.28 billion.

The year-over-year increase in revenue on an as-reported basis was primarily driven by favorable foreign-exchange movements, the company said.

Comparable sales for Tim Hortons were down 2.3%, but were up 0.7% for Burger King and 1.5% for Popeyes.

Burger King had an increase in U.S. comparable sales of 6.6%, and U.S. comparable sales growth for Popeyes was 0.9%. For Tim Hortons, Canada comparable sales fell 3.3%.

"Our first-quarter results signal our return to growth with system-wide sales surpassing Q1 2019 and net restaurant growth nearly matching our best-ever Q1 performance in 2018," Chief Executive Jose Cil said.

Restaurant Brands said Tim Hortons posted 31% digital sales in the quarter in Canada and drove 2 million app downloads in March.

"At Tim Hortons in Canada, over 30% of all sales in the quarter came through our digital channels, nearly doubling the levels of Q1 2020, and representing the largest quarter of digital sales yet for any of our three brands in their home markets," Mr. Cil said in the company's conference call.

Write to Michael Dabaie at michael.dabaie@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

04-30-21 1525ET