McDonald's? Diners are lovin' it, as quarterly profit shows

— -- Sales of chicken, breakfast and beverages were particularly strong, McDonald's says.

The nation's No. 1 hamburger chain is capturing a bigger bite of the market in nearly every part of the world as consumers look for a less-expensive alternative to sit-down restaurants. "They're scaling back and being more discernible about what they purchase," CEO Jim Skinner said Wednesday on a conference call with investors.

New fried chicken menu items and espresso-based drinks are boosting sales.

The espresso drinks are now on the menu at 10,000 of the company's 14,000 U.S. restaurants and are expected to be available at all of them this summer. Once the rollout is finished, Skinner says the company will begin a major ad campaign to promote the drinks. Starbucks, by contrast, is closing stores and cutting jobs.

McDonald's, which is testing its hefty Angus Burger in select markets, will roll it out to all U.S. locations this year. The burger is slightly more expensive than others. But the company will continue advertising its value menu and less-expensive core menu items.

Barclays Capital analyst Jeffrey Bernstein calls the company's results "impressive in this environment" and said in a note to investors that McDonald's will remain "the name investors return to in a 'flight to quality.' "

For the quarter ended March 31, Oak Brook, Ill.-based McDonald's earned $980 million, or 87 cents per share, up from $946 million, or 81 cents per share, a year ago. That beat estimates from analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, who on average expected a profit of 82 cents per share.

McDonald's said the stronger dollar hurt results by 8 cents per share, and it had a gain of 4 cents per share from the sale of its minority interest in DVD vending machine company Redbox Automated.

Global same-store sales, or sales at locations open at least a year, rose 4.3% in the first quarter. Shares fell $1.38, to $54.25 Wednesday.