Domino's Pizza third-quarter net income rises 9.2% to $152.2 million, diluted EPS $4.60

Domino's Pizza, Inc. (DPZ) said Tuesday that net income for the third quarter ended Sept. 6 rose 9.2% to $152.2 million, as higher supply chain volumes and franchise royalties lifted operating income.

Here's how the company did:

• Diluted EPS: $4.60 vs. $4.08 a year earlier
• Revenue: $1,185.6 million vs. $1,147.1 million a year earlier
• Net income: $152.2 million vs. $139.3 million a year earlier
• Income from operations: $241.8 million vs. $223.2 million a year earlier

Total revenues rose $38.5 million, or 3.4%, from the third quarter of 2025, the company said in its earnings release, which was attached to a Form 8-K.

Supply chain revenue carried most of the increase. The company said order volumes rose, and food basket pricing to stores increased 2.2% from a year earlier.

Franchise royalties and fees also grew with net store growth over the trailing four quarters. U.S. Company-owned store revenue fell to $61.4 million from $82.7 million after the company refranchised certain U.S. Company-owned store markets in the second quarter of 2026.

Income from operations rose $18.6 million, or 8.3%, to $241.8 million. Excluding a $0.2 million negative effect from foreign currency exchange rates on international franchise royalty revenues, the increase was 8.4%.

The company said the gain was driven mainly by higher U.S. and international franchise royalties and fees, and by gross margin dollar growth in supply chain.

Supply chain gross margin rose 0.9 percentage points to 12.2%, which the company said was primarily due to procurement productivity.

Diluted earnings per share were $4.60, up $0.52, or 12.7%. The company said the gain reflected higher net income and fewer weighted average diluted shares, about 33.1 million compared with 34.1 million, from share repurchases over the trailing four quarters.

Global retail sales, which include sales at company-owned and franchised stores, grew 3.2% excluding foreign currency impact. They totaled $4,840.4 million in the quarter, compared with $4,696.2 million a year earlier, in U.S. dollars.

U.S. same store sales rose 0.3%, and international same store sales rose 0.2% excluding foreign currency impact, the release said.

Store counts

Domino's had 22,706 stores at Sept. 6, 2026, after net growth of 175 stores in the quarter. U.S. net growth was 26 stores and international net growth was 149. Trailing four-quarter net growth was 956 stores.

Domino's Chief Executive Officer Joe Jordan said in the release: “Our opportunity now is to capitalize on those strengths by getting even closer to our customers, helping our franchisees grow their profitability and turning our best performance into our everyday performance.”

Cash flow and buybacks

Net cash provided by operating activities was $520.6 million in the three fiscal quarters of 2026, against $552.3 million a year earlier. Capital expenditures were $60.8 million, up from $56.7 million, leaving free cash flow of $459.8 million compared with $495.6 million, a decline of 7.2%.

The company said the decrease in free cash flow came from the timing and amount of advertising payments and from changes in operating assets and liabilities. Those effects were partly offset by higher income from operations, excluding a pre-tax realized gain on the sale of its fully depreciated corporate aircraft in the first quarter of 2026.

The company repurchased and retired 216,282 shares for $73.6 million in the third quarter. For the three fiscal quarters, it bought back 848,503 shares for $304.9 million. It had $1.15 billion left under its share repurchase authorization at Sept. 6.

On Oct. 6, the board declared a quarterly dividend of $1.99 per share, payable Dec. 30 to holders of record as of Dec. 15.

The leverage ratio fell to 4.2 times from 4.5 times a year earlier. The company defines the ratio as securitized debt on its fixed-rate notes and variable funding notes, divided by Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA on a trailing four-quarter basis.

The current portion of long-term debt was $1,326.8 million at Sept. 6, up from $6.1 million at Dec. 28, 2025. The release did not say how the company plans to handle those maturities.

The release did not include updated financial guidance. The company said it will file its quarterly report on Form 10-Q on Tuesday and will hold a conference call at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. The webcast is available at ir.dominos.com.