McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) Trading Up 1.1% After Analyst Upgrade

McDonald’s Co. (NYSE:MCD) shares shot up 1.1% on Monday after Citigroup raised their price target on the stock from $353.00 to $364.00. Citigroup currently has a buy rating on the stock. McDonald’s traded as high as $314.32 and last traded at $315.41. 457,648 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 87% from the average session volume of 3,560,683 shares. The stock had previously closed at $311.96.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of McDonald’s from $312.00 to $316.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Wedbush raised their price target on shares of McDonald’s from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. BTIG Research restated a “neutral” rating on shares of McDonald’s in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. TD Securities reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $300.00 target price on shares of McDonald’s in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their target price on McDonald’s from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $325.91.

Insider Activity at McDonald’s

In related news, CMO Edith Morgan Flatley sold 3,200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $300.76, for a total transaction of $962,432.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 9,858 shares in the company, valued at $2,964,892.08. This represents a 24.51 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Joseph M. Erlinger sold 939 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total value of $286,395.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 13,978 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,263,290. This represents a 6.29 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 28,136 shares of company stock worth $8,676,247. Insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On McDonald’s

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in McDonald’s by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 70,169,342 shares of the fast-food giant’s stock valued at $20,341,391,000 after purchasing an additional 526,466 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of McDonald’s by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 16,074,438 shares of the fast-food giant’s stock worth $4,652,768,000 after buying an additional 157,458 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its position in shares of McDonald’s by 5.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 10,652,445 shares of the fast-food giant’s stock valued at $3,088,037,000 after acquiring an additional 531,070 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of McDonald’s during the 4th quarter valued at about $2,725,190,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in shares of McDonald’s by 11.2% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 8,867,193 shares of the fast-food giant’s stock worth $2,570,511,000 after purchasing an additional 895,896 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.29% of the company’s stock.

McDonald’s Price Performance

The company has a 50-day moving average price of $309.54 and a 200 day moving average price of $300.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $226.63 billion, a PE ratio of 27.83, a P/E/G ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 0.57.

McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The fast-food giant reported $2.67 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.67. McDonald’s had a negative return on equity of 181.63% and a net margin of 31.73%. The company had revenue of $5.96 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.17 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.70 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that McDonald’s Co. will post 12.25 earnings per share for the current year.

McDonald’s Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a $1.77 dividend. This represents a $7.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. McDonald’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 62.49%.

About McDonald’s

McDonald’s Corp. engages in the operation and franchising of restaurants. It operates through the following segments: U.S., International Operated Markets, and International Developmental Licensed Markets and Corporate. The U.S. segment focuses its operations on the United States. The International Operated Markets segment consists of operations and the franchising of restaurants in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and the U.K.