OAK BROOK Ill. Analysts on Friday were predicting a 1-percent to 4-percent increase in McDonald's U.S. same-store sales for February, excluding an extra day of sales from Leap Year. McDonald's will report its February same-store sales results on Monday morning.
Also on Friday, analyst Mark Kalinowski released a survey of 33 domestic McDonald's franchisees, representing 214 units, that showed an aggregate same-store sales gain of 4.3 percent for the month of February. Excluding results from Feb. 29, same-store sales would have increased between 0.5 and 1.0 percent, he said.
The franchisees who responded to Kalinowski's monthly survey represent a small fraction of the chain’s 14,000 domestic restaurants. However, the analyst said his comparable-store sales estimates have been within 1 percentage point of the actual results on 21 of 30 previous surveys.
For January, McDonald's posted a 1.9-percent uptick in U.S. same-store sales. That followed a report of flat same-store sales for December, which the nation's No.1 burger chain blamed on severe winter weather.
Some analysts have expressed skepticism about McDonald’s weather excuse for the disappointing December sales results, saying that the economy, along with rapidly rising food costs, may have been the real culprits.
International sales have been doing better than domestic, leading some analysts to predict a 5 percent rise for Europe and 5 percent for McDonald’s Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa regions for February, excluding the extra Leap Year day.
Last year, McDonald's reported a 3.1-percent increase in U.S. same-store sales for February.
McDonald's stock fell 1.45 percent in trading on Friday, to close at $52.27.