Yes, A&W is a top line royalty company. So it depends on the success of the restaurants from a revenue standpoint but doesn't participate in the expenses related to the restaurant. This can be good during poor times (high expenses, lower profits) however it can also be a negative when the restaurants are turning out solid profits.
I've never been super bullish on MTY just because I'm not a huge fan of any of the brands it owns. The reason for the dip is it reported a decline in same store sales. Same store sales simply compare the stores it had last year at this time to the same stores today. This takes out acquisition based growth and lets you know how the business is growing organically. You can only expand so much, so if a company relies solely on new stores to fuel growth eventually the well will run dry.
I think the fact that MTY has a lot of restaurants inside malls (if you look at the company's brands, this isn't a surprise) may be impacting it a bit because of the lower discretionary spend among consumers. A prime example of this would be the fact the company's Canadian franchise operations witnessed a 1% decline in revenue.
A&W, on the other hand, is still continually adding new restaurants to its royalty pool and increase same store sales. ALthough it's not by much (3%~), considering the economic circumstances I think it's strong.
There's no doubt that MTY is cheaper than A&W, but I think the overall business structure (top line royalty versus normal restaurant operations) along with the fact one is solely growing via acquisition while the other is still driving organic growth is the reason people are paying more for A&W.
I think MTY will eventually have its time in the sun, but we need Canadians to open up their wallets a bit more and this may take a bit before that happens.