It took some time, but Burger King (NYSE:BKC) is now letting its shareholders have it their way. The fast-food giant posted healthy fiscal second-quarter results, backed by continuing strength in concept popularity. Burger King has rattled off a dozen consecutive quarters of positive comps, and it's showing up and down the income statement.

Revenues inched 9% higher to hit $559 million. Earnings per share rose by 17% to clock in at $0.28 a share. Even if you back out some one-time charges that held profitability back in last year's fiscal second quarter, you still get a respectable 8% boost on the bottom line. Analysts were only looking for the company to earn $0.26 a share on $544.7 in revenues.

I may be as shocked by the fat content of a Double Whopper with Cheese as the next calorie-counting cynic, but you won't find that kind of decadence in its actual operations. The company is actually cutting out the fat by paying down its debt. It's also expanding its flame-broiled empire globally at a calculated pace. This morning it even initiated a dividend policy to reward its investors with a little burger-spending money every three months.

The world's second-largest burger chain was struggling relative to burger flipping rivals Wendy's (NYSE:WEN) and McDonald's (NYSE:MCD) a few years ago. Jumping on the premium chicken gravy train and latching on to an edgy marketing campaign has changed all that.

Yes, we all know "The King" now. The company was even able to parlay that pop culture win into a deal with Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) to sell three different King-themed Xbox games at its restaurants this past quarter. It proved to be a hit, selling more than 3.2 million games for the period.

The King feeds us and lets us play games. Royalty can be generous sometimes. And if Burger King keeps growing with its franchisees as happy as The King himself, royalties will be even more generous.

For more on the battle for quick-serve supremacy, check out:

Microsoft has been singled out as an Inside Value stock pick.

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz does patronize Burger King often, as it's a local company, but often wonders why it doesn't follow Wendy's in offering up fat-free salad dressing choices. He does not own shares in any of the companies in this story. He is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early. The Fool has a disclosure policy.