More people are eating at McDonald's thanks to healthier options

IMAGE: STEVE PARSONS/PA WIRE

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS4 hours ago

Breakfast around the clock is helping shake McDonald's out of its slump.

The world's biggest hamburger chain says the launch of an all-day breakfast menu and unseasonably warm weather helped lift sales by 5.7% in the U.S. for the final three months of the year.

It's the second straight quarter of domestic growth as McDonald's fights to win back customers, and the best showing for the company since early 2012.

Globally, sales rose 5% at established locations.

The stock market greeted the news with excitement: McDonald's shares headed for an all-time high before the market opened Monday.

McDonald's, which has more than 36,000 locations around the world, is working to turnaround its business under CEO Steve Easterbrook, who will mark one year on the job in March.

One of the biggest changes under Easterbrook was to make the Egg McMuffin and other select breakfast foods available past normal breakfast hours in the U.S. — an option many customers had long desired. The company also touted healthier options, including kale in some salads,cage-free eggs in the U.S. and Canada, and experiments with quinoa. The changes come after McDonald's executives conceded they failed to keep up with changing tastes and saw sales slide.

The company did keep some things the same: Easterbrook said Ronald McDonald's the fast-food chain's clown mascot, would never be fired, even as the company reinvigorated the Hamburglar as an attractive, bored dad living a second life of crime.

In 2015, guest counts at established McDonald's locations in the U.S. fell 3%. That followed a 4.1% drop the previous year. Guest counts declined globally as well during the period.

The latest sales jump in the U.S. marks the best showing since the first quarter of 2012, when comparable-stores sales rose 8.9%.

McDonald's did well overseas as well. Sales for the "International Lead" unit, which includes the United Kingdom and Canada, rose 4.2% during the period. In the high-growth markets unit, which includes Russia and China, sales climbed 3%.

For the three months ended Dec. 31, McDonald's Corp. earned $1.21 billion, or $1.31 per share. That beat Wall Street expectations for $1.23 per share, according to FactSet.

Total revenue was $6.34 billion, also topping the $6.24 billion analysts expected.

Shares of McDonald's rose almost 3% to $121.90.