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McDonald's (MCD) Stock Moves -0.96%: What You Should Know

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McDonald's (MCD - Free Report) closed the latest trading day at $300.85, indicating a -0.96% change from the previous session's end. The stock's performance was in sync with S&P 500. Meanwhile, the Dow experienced a drop of 0.94%, and the technology-dominated Nasdaq saw a decrease of 1.18%.

The world's biggest hamburger chain's shares have seen an increase of 4.92% over the last month, not keeping up with the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 7.74% and outstripping the S&P 500's gain of 4.3%.

The upcoming earnings release of McDonald's will be of great interest to investors. It is anticipated that the company will report an EPS of $3.15, marking a 1.25% fall compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Simultaneously, our latest consensus estimate expects the revenue to be $6.76 billion, showing a 1.05% escalation compared to the year-ago quarter.

Looking at the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $11.71 per share and revenue of $26.04 billion. These totals would mark changes of -1.93% and +2.15%, respectively, from last year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for McDonald's. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As a result, upbeat changes in estimates indicate analysts' favorable outlook on the company's business health and profitability.

Our research suggests that these changes in estimates have a direct relationship with upcoming stock price performance. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, stretching from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has a noteworthy track record of outperforming, validated by third-party audits, with stocks rated #1 producing an average annual return of +25% since the year 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.38% higher. Currently, McDonald's is carrying a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

From a valuation perspective, McDonald's is currently exchanging hands at a Forward P/E ratio of 25.94. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 22.75, which means McDonald's is trading at a premium to the group.

It is also worth noting that MCD currently has a PEG ratio of 4.05. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. Retail - Restaurants stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 2.14 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Retail - Restaurants industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. Currently, this industry holds a Zacks Industry Rank of 174, positioning it in the bottom 31% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.


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