Domino's Pizza beats quarterly sales estimates on price hikes, steady demand

Domino's Pizza Inc beat Wall Street estimates for first-quarter US same-store sales on Thursday, boosted by higher prices as well as new promotional offers and menu items that helped draw more customers.

The pizza chain's better-than-expected sales follows similar reports from McDonald's Corp and Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc, which have been bumping up menu prices to protect their margins from a jump in costs of raw materials and labor.

In a bid to attract inflation-weary consumers, the pizza chain relaunched $3 Carryout Tips promo, where customers who place a carry-out order of $5 or more earn a $3 promo that can be used for another carry-out order.

Analysts have said the company's new menu item "Loaded Tots" that serves oven-baked potato tots with cheese and toppings in three varieties has helped boost sales during the January-March period.

The world's largest pizza chain's US same-store sales rose 3.6% in the first quarter, compared with analysts' estimate of a 1.96% increase, according to Refinitiv data.

However, total revenue rose 1.3% to $1.02 billion but missed analysts' estimate of $1.04 billion.