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McDonald's (MCD) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

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McDonald's (MCD - Free Report) ended the recent trading session at $300.43, demonstrating a -1.43% swing from the preceding day's closing price. The stock's change was less than the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.55%. On the other hand, the Dow registered a gain of 0.25%, and the technology-centric Nasdaq increased by 0.63%.

Coming into today, shares of the world's biggest hamburger chain had lost 2.29% in the past month. In that same time, the Retail-Wholesale sector gained 5.29%, while the S&P 500 gained 6.29%.

Investors will be eagerly watching for the performance of McDonald's in its upcoming earnings disclosure. The company's upcoming EPS is projected at $3.13, signifying a 5.39% increase compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Alongside, our most recent consensus estimate is anticipating revenue of $6.69 billion, indicating a 3.04% upward movement from the same quarter last year.

For the annual period, the Zacks Consensus Estimates anticipate earnings of $12.24 per share and a revenue of $26.35 billion, signifying shifts of +4.44% and +1.64%, respectively, from the last year.

Investors should also take note of any recent adjustments to analyst estimates for McDonald's. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, upbeat changes in estimates indicate analysts' favorable outlook on the company's business health and profitability.

Empirical research indicates that these revisions in estimates have a direct correlation with impending stock price performance. To capitalize on this, we've crafted the Zacks Rank, a unique model that incorporates these estimate changes and offers a practical rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, which varies between #1 (Strong Buy) and #5 (Strong Sell), carries an impressive track record of exceeding expectations, confirmed by external audits, with stocks at #1 delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, there's been a 0.25% rise in the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate. Currently, McDonald's is carrying a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

With respect to valuation, McDonald's is currently being traded at a Forward P/E ratio of 24.91. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 23.73, so one might conclude that McDonald's is trading at a premium comparatively.

Meanwhile, MCD's PEG ratio is currently 3.18. 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. The Retail - Restaurants was holding an average PEG ratio of 2.57 at yesterday's closing price.

The Retail - Restaurants industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. With its current Zacks Industry Rank of 185, this industry ranks in the bottom 25% of all industries, numbering over 250.

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

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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