Shares of Domino's Pizza Inc. (DPZ) were cooking in premarket trading Monday after the company served up its fourth-quarter results and, more importantly for income-focused investors, a nice, hot 15% increase to its quarterly dividend.
It's the kind of move that makes shareholders feel appreciated, especially when it comes alongside a report showing the business is still growing. Following the news, TD Cowen analyst Andrew M. Charles kept a Hold rating and a $460 price target on the stock, suggesting a wait-and-see approach despite the positive developments.
The Main Course: Earnings and Sales
Let's dig into the numbers. For the quarter, Domino's reported earnings per share of $5.35. That was a slight miss compared to what analysts were expecting, which was $5.39. It's not a huge gap, but it's there.
On the top line, however, the story was better. Sales came in at $1.536 billion, which was up 6.4% from the same period last year and, importantly, beat the Street's estimate of $1.520 billion. So, they sold more pizza (and supplies) than expected, even if the profit per share was a hair below forecasts.
Where did that sales growth come from? The company pointed to higher supply chain revenues—that's the business of selling dough, cheese, and boxes to its franchisees—along with increased U.S. franchise royalties and fees, and more advertising revenue.
This sales growth helped push income from operations up 8.0% year-over-year to $295.7 million. The overall gross margin for the quarter also improved, ticking up to 39.7% from 39.2% a year ago. Now, not every segment saw margin expansion. The gross margin at U.S. company-owned stores actually fell by 5.4 percentage points to 10.1%, while the supply chain's gross margin rose slightly to 11.4%.
Checking the Vital Signs: Same-Store Sales and Global Growth
For restaurant chains, a key health metric is same-store sales growth—are existing locations selling more than they did a year ago? For Domino's in the U.S., the answer was yes: sales at stores open at least a year rose 3.7%. Internationally, on a currency-neutral basis, the growth was a more modest 0.7%.
Looking at the bigger picture, global retail sales (which includes all sales from franchised and company-owned stores) increased 4.9% on a currency-neutral basis. The U.S. led the charge with 5.5% growth, while international markets grew 4.5%.
"In our international business, we delivered a remarkable 32nd consecutive year of same-store sales growth," said CEO Russell Weiner. "In our U.S. business, we gained another point of market share, pacing well ahead of the QSR Pizza category, which grew again in 2025. These strong results flowed through to increased franchisee profits, showcasing our ability to drive store level profitability while providing incredible value for our customers."
The company isn't just growing sales at existing locations; it's also building new ones. In the quarter, Domino's added a net 392 stores worldwide. That breaks down to 96 new stores in the U.S. and 320 new stores internationally.
