CHICAGO _ McDonald's said Tuesday its second-quarter earnings slipped 9 percent on costs related to refranchising and relocating the company's longtime headquarters, as well as slower restaurant industry growth.
The results were below what Wall Street expected, and the stock fell more than 3 percent in pre-market trading.
The world's largest burger chain, headquartered in suburban Chicago, earned $1.09 billion, or $1.25 per share, compared with earnings of $1.2 billion, or $1.26 per share, in the same quarter a year ago.
Revenue fell 4 percent, to $6.26 billion.
McDonald's took $235 million in pretax charges in the second quarter related to its plan to move its corporate headquarters to Chicago and franchising more of its restaurants. The fast-food giant, which plans to move to the city in spring 2018, did not say if the figure included costs related to buyouts, which sources say are being offered to employees.
Stripping out those charges and a hit from currency exchange, McDonald's said earnings would have increased by 13 percent.
More worrisome, however, was a tepid 1.8 percent sales increase in restaurants open at least 13 months in the U.S. McDonald's said the metric _ a key gauge of restaurant health because it excludes results from new stores _ was hurt by an industry slowdown that cut in to the continued benefit from all-day breakfast and McPick2, the chain's newest value plan. Both Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts' parent noted slowing traffic growth when they reported earnings last week.
Analysts, on average, expected McDonald's to report earnings of $1.39 per share on revenue of $6.27 billion for the quarter ended June 30, according to FactSet.
