Wendy's posted a quarterly profit that beat Wall Street expectations and announced plans to focus more on franchising as it moves to lower costs.
Wendy's said it will sell approximately 425 company-owned restaurants, after which it will own about 15 percent of the Wendy's outlets, down from the current 22 percent. Wendy's is aiming to complete the sales by around the middle of next year.
Wendy's reported a profit of $12.2 million, or 3 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $5.5 million, or a penny a share. Excluding one-time items operating profit per share rose to 8 cents from 5 cents as revenue crept up 0.7% to $650.5 million.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had most recently forecast per-share earnings of 6 cents on revenue of $656 million.
Revenue rose to $650.5 million, short of the $659.5 million analysts expected.
In a press release, the company said the sale has started, beginning with 24 units in the Kansas City area going to a division of large restaurant operator NPC International on Monday. The company has also sold five restaurants in the Kansas City market to a long-time franchise owner.
