Domino's Pizza beats Street 4Q forecasts

NEW YORK (AP) - Domino's Pizza Inc. reported a boost in fourth-quarter profit on higher sales and franchise royalties, along with the benefit of an extra week in the year.

Its shares climbed more than 5 percent in premarket trading.

The pizza chain's profit jumped 31 percent to $62.8 million, or $1.18 per share. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring gains, were $1.15 per share, topping Wall Street expectations with the average estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research for earnings of $1.13 per share.

The Ann Arbor, Michigan-based company's revenue rose 15.3 percent to $741.2 million in the period, also surpassing Street forecasts. Five analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $698 million.

Revenue included a key bump of $49.7 million from an extra week of sales during the final quarter. Same-store sales, a key measure of a retailer's health, rose 12 percent during the period, resulting in higher revenue from company-owned stores and increased royalties from franchised stores.

For the year, the company reported profit of $192.8 million, or $3.47 per share. Revenue was reported as $2.22 billion.

Domino's Pizza shares rose $6.40, or 5.4 percent, to $124.01 in premarket trading about an hour before the markets open. They have climbed roughly 6 percent since the beginning of the year. The stock has increased 14 percent in the last 12 months.

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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on DPZ at http://www.zacks.com/ap/DPZ.

Published: Fri, Feb 26, 2016