The company said there was broad strength across Asia and Europe, and solid sales gains in emerging markets like Russian Federation and China.
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USA comparable sales leaped 5.7 percent in the fourth quarter, with McDonald’s attributing most of the rise to the launch of round-the-clock breakfasts in October. “For 2016, we expect our capital expenditures to remain at about $2 billion – split fairly evenly between opening new restaurants and reinvesting in existing restaurants as we pursue targeted opportunities to drive long-term profitable growth”.
McDonald’s has suffered some serious damage to its reputation over the past few years after the media painted the company in an unfavorable light among the public.
But Easterbrook was upbeat about McDonald’s prospects. McDonald’s credited strong same-store sales to the all-day breakfast offering as well as unseasonably mild weather.
McDonald’s also said it would refranchise about 4,000 restaurants through 2018 to become 95 percent franchised, up from its previous target of selling 3,500.
“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.
Overall, McDonald’s posted a profit of $1.21 billion during the quarter, or $1.31 per share.
Excluding some items, fourth-quarter earnings amounted to $1.28 a share, compared with a projection of $1.23. “We ended the year with momentum, including positive comparable sales across all segments for both the quarter and the year – a testament to the swift changes we made and the early impact of our turnaround efforts”, Easterbrook wrote. The $30 billion target will be almost double the $16.4 billion returned to shareholders for the three-year period ending 2013. Shares set an all-time intraday record of $121.90 on the earnings news and are on pace for a record close.
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Total revenues dropped to $6.62 billion from $6.99 billion in the prior year, but came well above Wall Street consensus estimate of $6.41 billion. In constant currencies, earnings climbed 26%.
