McDonald's 3Q profit climbs 27 percent

McDonald's Corp. said today its third-quarter earnings jumped 27 percent on rising sales of everything from coffee and breakfast items to hamburgers and snack wraps.

The earnings, which were in line with preliminary results released last week, keep the world's largest restaurant chain on a sustained roll around the globe.

Net income for the July-through-September period was $1.07 billion, or 89 cents per share, up from $843.3 million, or 68 cents per share, in the third quarter of 2006.

Excluding an after-tax gain of 6 cents per share from the sale of its Boston Market franchise, the Oak Brook-based company said its earnings were 83 cents.

That was in keeping with the revised expectations of analysts polled by Thomson Financial, who expected earnings of 83 cents per share on revenue of $6 billion.

Thomson estimates typically exclude one-time charges.

Revenue was $5.9 billion, up 7 percent from $5.5 billion a year ago.