Burger King Hldgs (NYSE:BKC) today announced that results of the first quarter of its 2008 fiscal year showed continued strong growth, with sales up a whopping 5.9% and earnings per share up 17% to $0.35, well above analysts' expectation of $0.32. As BloggingStocks' Trey Thoelcke reported in last week's earning preview, analysts continue to rate the stock a buy.

The strong returns are credited to an evolving menu, strong returns from breakfast and late night operations and successful media tie-ins. The chain hooked up with this summer's Transformer and The Simpson's Movies, which brought in a lot of d'oh.

The company declared a dividend for the quarter of $0.0625, and sweetened stockholders' portfolio by repurchasing over 250,000 shares during the quarter. It also paid down another $25 million of outstanding debt.

Making the performance even rosier is that it takes place as the company continues to aggressively expand its operations, opening 440 new outlets in the past year, almost 80% outside the U.S.

BKC expects its tie-in to the upcoming SpongeBob Squarepants movie to similarly push second quarter earnings.