Domino’s Pizza Inc.’s fourth-quarter profit rose 27 percent as revenue increased and an extra week in the period offset a lease accounting charge.
The Ann Arbor-based pizza delivery company on Tuesday said it earned $27 million, or 38 cents a share, on revenue of $478.5 million in the fiscal fourth quarter ended Jan. 2.
In the previous year, it earned $21.3 million, or 33 cents a share, on revenue of $433 million.
The company said the latest period included an extra week which boosted earnings by about 4 cents a share. The gain was partially offset by a lease-accounting charge, that cut earnings by 2 cents a share. That amount of the charge was 1 cent less than Domino’s warned earlier this month.
Analysts were expecting earnings of 39 cents a share, according to Thomson First Call. Analysts generally exclude items from their estimate.
Sales at domestic stores open more than one year, or same-store sales, released earlier, fell 0.2 percent, though international same-store sales increased 5.9 percent on a constant-dollar basis.
The pizza company said it still expects earnings to grow 11 percent to 13 percent this year, a figure which excludes the effect of the accounting charge and the extra week.
Based on the forecast, Domino’s full-year earnings should amount to $1.23 to $1.25 a share, slightly below the $1.26 a share projected on average by analysts.
Domino’s also hiked its quarterly dividend 54 percent to 10 cents from 6.5 cents. The new rate will be paid March 30 to shareholders of record March 15.
In the year ended Jan. 2, the company earned $62.3 million, or $1.12 a share, on revenue of $1.45 billion. In the previous year, it earned $39 million on revenue of $1.33 billion.