McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD) beat revenue and earnings estimates for the fourth quarter of 2019. Analysts had forecast earnings of $1.96 per share on revenue of $5.30 billion. Despite the beat, shares were down 1.2% in premarket hours on Wednesday.
Consolidated revenues increased 4% year-over-year to $5.35 billion. Systemwide sales increased 6%. Global comparable sales grew 5.9%.
GAAP net income rose 11% to $1.57 billion while EPS increased 14% to $2.08. Adjusted EPS was $1.97.
CFO Kevin Ozan said, “Our Velocity Growth Plan helped produce strong operating performance over the past several years, and our underlying financial strength continues to build long-term value for our shareholders. As we begin 2020, we remain committed to our capital allocation philosophy to reinvest in the business to drive profitable growth and return all free cash flow to shareholders through a combination of dividends and share repurchases.”
Sales by company-operated restaurants remained flat at $2.36 billion while revenues from franchised restaurants increased 7% to $2.98 billion.
Also see: McDonald’s Q4 2019 Earnings Preview
Comparable sales increased 6.2% in the International Operated segment, 5.1% in the US and 6.6% in the International Developmental Licensed segment.
McDonald’s returned $2.3 billion to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends during the fourth quarter and $8.6 billion for the full year, marking the successful achievement of its targeted return of $25 billion for the three-year period ended 2019.
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