McDonald's profit misses for first time in 2 years

McDonald’s reported disappointing third-quarter results on Tuesday, sending shares lower.

Ticker Security Last Change Change %
MCD MCDONALD'S CORP. 303.45 -0.31 -0.10%

The fast-food chain reported its profit fell 4 percent versus a year ago to $1.6 billion, or $2.11 per diluted share. It was McDonald’s first profit miss in two years. Revenue was up 1 percent to $5.43 billion. Wall Street analysts surveyed by Refinitiv were expecting earnings of $2.21 a share on revenue of $5.5 billion.

“Our third quarter performance was strong, and broad-based momentum continued with our 17th consecutive quarter of global comparable sales growth," said McDonald's President and CEO Steve Easterbrook. "Globally, our customers are rewarding our commitment of running better restaurants and executing our Velocity Growth Plan by visiting more often."

Global comparable sales climbed 5.9 percent year over year as U.S. sales rose 4.8 percent. McDonald’s said promotions and menu-price increases were behind the increased domestic sales growth, but that traffic continued to decline.

The burger chain has been slow to roll out plant-based meat offerings, potentially losing business to rivals like Burger King and KFC. McDonald’s is in the process of remodeling 14,000 U.S. restaurants to make them more digital-friendly with the hope that it will improve traffic.

McDonald’s raised its dividend by 8 percent to $1.25 a share.

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Shares were up 18.2 percent this year through Monday.