“Going forward, we're confident that our operating performance will continue to fuel growth in our already strong free cash flow profile.”

In context

“act on Fourth Quarter EPS, with an estimated full-year benefit of 0.21 to $0.23. As usual, this as directional guidance only as rates will likely change as we move through the rest of the year. And finally, in September, our Board of Directors approved a 7% dividend increase to the equivalent of $5.52 annually. This marked 45 years of increasing our dividend for shareholders, further reinforcing our confidence in accelerating The Arches. We also announced the resumption of our share repurchase program. As a reminder, we had suspended share buybacks at the beginning of the pandemic as we took on additional debt to provide liquidity support to the McDonald's system. Since then, we've been focused on returning to pre-COVID debt ratios that support our strong investment-grade credit rating. Going forward, we're confident that our operating performance will continue to fuel growth in our already strong free cash flow profile. As a result, we're committed to our historical capital allocation priorities. First, to invest in new restaurants, existing restaurants, and opportunities to grow the business. Then we expect to return all free cash flow to shareholders through a combination of dividends and share repurchases over time. Now, I'll turn it back to Chris to close. Chris Kempczinski: Thanks, Kevin. We've accomplished so much the past 20 months. And even though the pandemic has greatly altered so much in our business and our world, it hasn't changed the simple fact that we're better together than we are apart. For a long time, we had to bridge physical separation with technology and new ways of working. But as vaccines have reached critical mass of people in the U.S. and some places around the world, we're beg”