Comp-store sales for McDonald's restaurants worldwide increased 6.8% for the month, and 4.6% for the quarter. Global companywide sales for McDonald's increased 11.2% in March and 8% for the first quarter, compared with the same periods in 2004. In constant currencies, these increases were 8% and 5.7% for the month and quarter, respectively.
The company estimated that it would turn in earnings of $0.56 per share for the quarter, up 40% from a year ago. Even after a tax benefit and expenses from stock-based compensation are removed from its earnings, McDonald's will post $0.46 per share earnings, beating analysts' predictions.
"Our global results for the quarter are a testament to the effectiveness of McDonald's Plan to Win," noted CEO Jim Skinner, referring to the various strategies that the company has undertaken in recent years to turn itself around. "For the month of March, comparable sales in the U.S. were strong—up 6.8% on top of a very strong increase in March 2004," he added.
The company scored good numbers in other parts of the world as well, even in Europe, where comparable sales rose 6.6% in March driven. "Results for March also benefited from the change in timing of Easter, and related school holidays, from April in 2004 to March in 2005," said Skinner. "Sales results for April 2005 will be negatively impacted by this same holiday shift."
In the company's Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa segment, comp-store sales increased 7.3% in March, driven by results in Japan, Australia and Taiwan.
McDonald's plans to release final first-quarter earnings numbers before the market opens on April 21. McDonald's stock traded heavily Wednesday on the news—about 9.3 million shares, compared to a recent daily average of 4.4 million shares—and ended the day up slightly more than 1%.
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free ALM Digital Reader.
Once you are an ALM Digital Member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
*May exclude premium content© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
