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.

The Secret Sauce: Promotions and New Products

So, how did Domino's drive that U.S. sales growth? The company credited a couple of factors. There was the launch of the Parmesan Stuffed Crust pizza, which probably didn't hurt. But a bigger driver appears to have been its "Best Deal Ever" promotion, offering pizzas for $9.99.

For the full year 2025, U.S. same-store sales rose 3.0%, on top of a 3.2% gain in 2024. That growth came from both higher customer traffic and customers spending a bit more per order. Internationally for the full year, same-store sales (excluding currency swings) grew 1.9%, following a 1.6% rise in 2024, helped by more customer transactions.

The Icing on the Cake: Cash, Dividends, and Buybacks

This is where things get interesting for investors. A company can grow sales, but what does it do with the money? Domino's ended the quarter with $125.7 million in cash and equivalents.

More importantly, for the entire fiscal year 2025, the company generated free cash flow of $671.5 million. That's a lot of dough (pun intended) that can be returned to shareholders.

And return it they did. On February 18, the company's board approved a 15% increase in the quarterly cash dividend, raising it to $1.99 per share. That dividend will be paid on March 30 to shareholders of record as of March 13, 2026.

They didn't stop there. During the quarter, Domino's also bought back 188,526 of its own shares for a total of $80.0 million. As of the end of December, the company still had authorization to buy back another $459.7 million worth of stock. Share buybacks reduce the number of shares outstanding, which can boost earnings per share for remaining investors.

Put it all together—sales growth, store expansion, a big dividend hike, and ongoing share repurchases—and it's no surprise the stock was up over 6% in premarket trading. It's a classic case of a company using its financial strength to reward the people who own it.