McDonald’s Co. (NYSE:MCD) Position Trimmed by Assenagon Asset Management S.A.

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. trimmed its stake in McDonald’s Co. (NYSE:MCD) by 47.9% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 199,163 shares of the fast-food giant’s stock after selling 182,815 shares during the quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A.’s holdings in McDonald’s were worth $62,213,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of McDonald’s during the 4th quarter valued at $2,725,190,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in shares of McDonald’s by 39,039.7% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,497,919 shares of the fast-food giant’s stock worth $1,092,645,000 after acquiring an additional 3,488,982 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in McDonald’s during the fourth quarter valued at $703,074,000. Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in McDonald’s in the fourth quarter valued at about $350,935,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in 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 valued at $2,570,511,000 after purchasing an additional 895,896 shares in the last quarter. 70.29% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at McDonald’s

In other news, insider Joseph M. Erlinger sold 939 shares of McDonald’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.07, for a total transaction of $295,850.73. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 11,161 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,516,496.27. The trade was a 7.76% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on MCD. Redburn Atlantic reaffirmed a “sell” rating and set a $260.00 price target (down from $319.00) on shares of McDonald’s in a research note on Tuesday. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of McDonald’s from $292.00 to $314.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of McDonald’s from $353.00 to $364.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Truist Financial set a $350.00 price target on shares of McDonald’s in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, KeyCorp raised their price target on shares of McDonald’s from $335.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $321.79.

McDonald’s Stock Performance

NYSE MCD opened at $301.93 on Thursday. McDonald’s Co. has a twelve month low of $243.53 and a twelve month high of $326.32. The stock has a market cap of $215.89 billion, a PE ratio of 26.51, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 0.56. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $311.84 and a 200 day simple moving average of $302.83.

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

McDonald’s Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 2nd will be paid a dividend of $1.77 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 2nd. This represents a $7.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.34%. McDonald’s’s dividend payout ratio is currently 62.49%.

McDonald’s Profile

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.