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

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In the latest trading session, McDonald's (MCD - Free Report) closed at $282.14, marking a +0.9% move from the previous day. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.37%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.98%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.62%.

Coming into today, shares of the world's biggest hamburger chain had gained 3.92% in the past month. In that same time, the Retail-Wholesale sector gained 3.65%, while the S&P 500 gained 3.71%.

McDonald's will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect McDonald's to post earnings of $2.46 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 7.89%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $5.54 billion, down 2.27% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $10.49 per share and revenue of $24.27 billion. These totals would mark changes of +3.86% and +4.67%, respectively, from last year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for McDonald's. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.22% lower. McDonald's is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Digging into valuation, McDonald's currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 26.65. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 22.21.

Also, we should mention that MCD has a PEG ratio of 3.3. 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 1.97 at yesterday's closing price.

The Retail - Restaurants industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 39, which puts it in the top 16% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. 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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