McDonald's Feb same-store sales up-analyst survey

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Sales rose 4.3 percent in February on average at 214 McDonald's Corp's (MCD.N: Quote, Profile, Research) U.S. restaurants open at least 13 months, based on a survey of 33 franchisees conducted by an restaurant analyst that was released on Friday.

Excluding the extra day in February due to leap year, same-store sales would have been up about 0.5 percent to 1 percent, said the restaurant stock analyst, Mark Kalinowski.

The franchisees surveyed represent a small portion of the company's roughly 14,000 U.S. restaurants.

Kalinowski said the 4.3 percent figure does not represent an actual estimate of same-store sales.

In 30 previous sales surveys by Kalinowski, the same-store sales came within 1 percentage point of the actual figure on 21 occasions, he said.

McDonald's shares have reacted to the survey in the past. In January, the stock tumbled when Kalinowski's survey showed U.S. same-store sales grew at their worst level in the six-year history of the survey.

Actual U.S. same-store sales were flat in December, the company later reported.

McDonald's is scheduled to report February sales on Monday. A spokeswoman could not be reached to comment on Kalinowski's survey.

(Reporting by Brad Dorfman; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)