The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday, May 4, edition that Citi analyst Jon Tower is holding on to his "neutral" recommendation for Restaurant Brands International. The Globe's David Leeder writes that Mr. Tower, however, jacked his share target up by $4 (U.S.) to $74 (U.S.). Analysts on average target the shares at $73.43 (U.S.). Mr. Tower says he is sticking to "the sidelines" after Restaurant Brands' earnings report, believing its valuation is appearing to "already bake in a fair amount" of optimism about the Burger King revival south of the border. He now wants to see "clearer macro skies" and greater evidence of the reversal of unit and traffic declines before taking a more bullish stance. Mr. Tower says in a note: "It's difficult to disaggregate how much top-line strength is coming from brand initiatives in core markets driving idiosyncratic improvement versus broader industry tailwinds. ... We would put QSR as more at risk than peers in a macro downturn. We tend to give QSR more credit for building sales initiatives at Tims, but increased U.S. promotional activity could quickly zap momentum from Reclaim the Flame/store profitability initiatives and lead to additional waves of BK closures."