McDonald's Q3 2025 earnings: sales rebound across all regions, profit growth outpaces last year
McDonald's Q3 2025 sales and profit both grew from a year earlier, with comparable sales rebounding across every region even as executives flagged a cautious consumer.
| Q3 2025 | Reported |
|---|---|
| EPS | $3.18 |
| Revenue | $7.08B |
Figures as reported by the company to the SEC for the quarter ended September 30, 2025. Analyst estimates are not part of a filing, so no comparison to expectations is shown.
Key takeaways
- Global sales at existing restaurants rose 3.6% compared with a year earlier, a turnaround from a 1.5% decline in the same quarter last year, with growth spread across the US, international company-run markets, and international licensed markets.
- US comparable sales grew 2.4%, which the company said was driven mainly by customers spending more per visit rather than more visits.
- Total revenue reached $7.08 billion, up 3% from $6.87 billion a year earlier, while net income rose 1% to $2.27 billion and earnings per share increased to $3.18 from $3.13.
- Operating income, a measure of profit from running restaurants before interest and taxes, climbed 5% to $3.36 billion, growing faster than revenue.
- Over the trailing twelve months, McDonald’s kept roughly 46 cents of operating profit and about 32 cents of net profit for every dollar of revenue, margins typical of the company’s heavily franchised, royalty-driven business model.
- CEO Chris Kempczinski said global systemwide sales grew 6% and that the company grew comparable sales across all segments, calling it ‘a testament to our ability to deliver sustainable growth even in a challenging environment,’ pointing to value deals, menu additions, and marketing as drivers.
- CFO Ian Borden struck a more cautious tone, saying ‘the conditions still remain challenging in the U.S. and we certainly see that as well in many of our top international markets,’ while adding he expects each segment to post another solid quarter of growth in the fourth quarter.
- The company reaffirmed its full-year 2025 performance targets following the quarter’s results.
Q3 2025 in context
| Metric | Sep 2025 | Sep 2024 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $7.1B | $6.9B | +3.0% |
| Net income | $2.3B | $2.3B | +1.0% |
| Free cash flow | $2.4B | $1.9B | +24.5% |
| Diluted EPS | $3.18 | $3.13 | +1.6% |
| Gross margin | 90.6% | 90.6% | -0.0 pts |
| Operating margin | 47.4% | 46.4% | +1.0 pts |
| Net margin | 32.2% | 32.8% | -0.6 pts |
Figures for the quarter ended Sep 2025 and the quarter ended Sep 2024, as reported to the SEC.
How the stock took it
McDonald's Corp closed at $299.21 on Nov 4, 2025, the last session before the report, and at $298.41 on Nov 6, 2025, the first session after it — -0.3% across the report.
Closes from the market's daily record. Each figure spans the report date — from the last session that closed before it to the first that closed after — because a company may report before the open or after the close.
Sources: company report · earnings call