Ihop Corp. said late Thursday that its first-quarter same-store sales grew at both its namesake restaurant chains as well as its newly acquired Applebee’s units.

Same store sales at Ihop restaurants grew 3.7 percent and at Applebee’s they grew 0.5 percent.

Ihop said that company-wide same-store sales (Ihop and Applebee’s chains combined) for the quarter increased 2.1 percent, pushed up by higher average customer checks but hurt slightly by overall declines in traffic.

The company also affirmed its fiscal 2008 guidance of same-store sales growth of 2 percent to 4 percent at its namesake chain and 1 percent to 2 percent at Applebee’s.

Shares in Ihop were up 3.6 percent to $50.69 in early trading Friday.