“We begin 2016 in a much better place than we were 12 months ago,” Steve Easterbrook, chief executive of McDonald’s, said during a conference call with investment analysts.
Profit in the fourth quarter climbed a healthy 10 percent to $1.2 billion, or $1.31 a share, from $1.1 billion, or $1.13 a share, in the same quarter in 2014. The company also benefited from raising its prices and cutting costs, as well as unseasonably warm weather at the end of last year.
The impact of higher wages that the company is paying employees in the stores it operates were offset by lower commodity prices, said Kevin Ozan, chief financial officer.
Customer traffic in the United States, the company’s biggest market, continued to decline, however. “Guest counts” dropped 3 percent last year, after falling 4.1 percent the year before. “We need to do more to increase loyalty in our existing customers and win back customers,” Easterbrook said.
McDonald’s shares were more than 2 percent higher in early trading on Monday.
Mark Kalinowski, an investment analyst at Nomura, said offering some items from McDonald’s breakfast menu all day and night was the biggest driver of the company’s sales at the end of the year.
“Clearly, all-day breakfast is helping bring back lapsed customers and may even be bringing in new customers who wouldn’t normally be going to McDonald’s,” Kalinowski said in an interview before earnings were announced. “I’m hearing that from franchisees — and from friends, too.”
The company also introduced a new value menu, the McPick, which gives customers a choice of two items from a menu of four for $2 total. And it got a lot of publicity for new, more environmentally friendly and simple packaging.
For 2015, profit fell 5 percent to $4.5 billion, compared with $4.8 billion the previous year. On a constant currency basis, net income was flat for the year. Sales declined to $25.4 billion, from $27.4 billion.
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