McDonald's sales beat analysts' estimates
McDonald's Corp., the world's largest restaurant company, posted October sales that beat some analysts' estimates after U.S. consumers pinched by rising food bills and unemployment bought double cheeseburgers and other $1 items.
Global sales at restaurants open at least 13 months climbed 8.2 percent, paced by Europe's gain of 9.8 percent compared with a year earlier. U.S. same-store sales increased 5.3 percent, the Oak Brook, Illinois-based company said today in a statement.
As consumers curbed spending globally, Chief Executive Officer Jim Skinner emphasized $1 foods and specialty coffee in the U.S. and new burgers and snack-sized chicken sandwiches in Europe. The Oct. 7 return of a Monopoly game promotion offering cash and gift cards from Foot Locker Inc. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC helped U.S. sales.
McDonald's ``probably didn't expect the downturn to be this severe, but they're certainly positioned to take advantage of it,'' Peter Jankovskis, who helps manage $1.3 billion at Oakbrook Investments, said in a telephone interview. The Lisle, Illinois- based firm owned 279,766 McDonald's shares through September. ``They've got more and more people coming into their stores.''
Analysts projected that global same-store sales advanced 5.5 percent, the median of three estimates by Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., RBC Capital Markets and Wachovia Capital Markets.
Comparable-store sales in the region encompassing Asia, Pacific, the Middle East and Africa gained 11.5 percent.
Shares Advance
McDonald's rose $1.93, or 3.8 percent, to $57.40 at 8:30 a.m. before the start of trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Among the 30 stocks of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, McDonald's 5.8 percent drop this year before today ranked second best behind Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s 14 percent gain. Through Nov. 7, the index tumbled 33 percent in 2008.
Skinner, 64, told analysts last month that McDonald's attracted more customers in the third quarter, with that momentum remaining ``strong in virtually all of our markets'' into October.
The dollar menu and specialty coffees drew consumers in the U.S., Skinner said, while more-expensive burgers in the U.K. and chicken snack wraps and sandwiches in France helped in Europe.