Breakfast bump: McDonald’s US sales jump 5.7 percent

Analysts projected $1.23 in per-share profit on $6.22 billion in revenue, according to Thomson Reuters. McDonald’s also credited its results to “bold, urgent action” it took previous year to improve its then-struggling business, including cutting expenses, re-franchising some of its restaurants and giving more money back to shareholders.

Shares of McDonald’s rose more than 3 percent in premarket trading immediately following the announcement.

McDonald’s reported revenue of $6.34 billion, down from $6.57 billion in the year-ago quarter.

“We are demonstrating that our turnaround plan is key to restarting growth and becoming a modern and progressive burger company”, Easterbrook said in the earnings release. The average estimate of 14 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.23 per share. Revenues fell 4% year over year but climbed 5% in constant currencies. Factoring out the impact of the strong dollar on foreign earnings, EPS increased 26 percent.

Comparable sales for the International Lead Markets segment increased 4.6% for the third quarter led by strong performance in Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada and positive results in Germany.

In addition, the company increased its cash return to shareholders target to about $30 billion for the three-year period ending 2016 – a $10 billion increase over the prior target, with incremental debt funding the vast majority of the increase.

Company-operated restaurants recorded sales of $4 billion, while franchised restaurants saw revenues of $2.3 billion.

The sales jump in the USA marks the best showing since the first quarter of 2012, when the comparable-stores sales (sales at units open a year or more) rose 8.9 percent. Emphasis on value and breakfast during the quarter contributed to China’s sales recovery in the quarter. Excluding items, earnings were $1.28 per share.