McDonald’s Corporation $MCD Shares Sold by Confluence Investment Management LLC

Confluence Investment Management LLC reduced its stake in McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD) by 9.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 59,362 shares of the fast-food giant’s stock after selling 6,491 shares during the quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC’s holdings in McDonald’s were worth $13,709,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in McDonald’s by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 35,983,997 shares of the fast-food giant’s stock valued at $10,997,789,000 after purchasing an additional 959,140 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its holdings in shares of McDonald’s by 7.4% during the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,560,037 shares of the fast-food giant’s stock worth $1,699,314,000 after buying an additional 384,762 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in shares of McDonald’s by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 5,283,655 shares of the fast-food giant’s stock valued at $1,614,843,000 after buying an additional 40,506 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its position in shares of McDonald’s by 17.2% in the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 3,637,785 shares of the fast-food giant’s stock valued at $1,130,587,000 after buying an additional 533,448 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Diamant Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of McDonald’s by 30,979.0% during the first quarter. Diamant Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,596,340 shares of the fast-food giant’s stock valued at $806,917,000 after buying an additional 2,587,986 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.29% of the company’s stock.

More McDonald’s News

Here are the key news stories impacting McDonald’s this week:

• Positive Sentiment: McDonald’s is expanding its beverage business, which could increase restaurant visits, average order values and cash flow as the company rolls the platform out across additional international markets. Can McDonald’s Beverage Expansion Become Its Next Global Growth Wave?
• Positive Sentiment: The company’s loyalty program and planned rewards enhancements, including Disney+ and Uber credits, are intended to reactivate infrequent customers and encourage larger or more frequent orders. McDonald’s has nearly 220 million active loyalty members over a 90-day period. McDonald’s has a plan to win back 150 million customers
• Positive Sentiment: Management’s $8.5 billion modernization initiative, including the Archy AI drive-thru assistant, is designed to improve restaurant efficiency and margins. Successful deployment could support long-term cash-flow growth, although an earlier AI ordering effort reportedly produced too many errors. Meet Archy: McDonald’s AI Drive-Thru Assistant
• Neutral Sentiment: McDonald’s is testing AI-assisted menu pricing that uses local market and transaction data to recommend restaurant- and item-level prices, while franchisees retain final control. The strategy could improve margins and personalize promotions, but its financial contribution has not been quantified. McDonald’s Stock Slump Makes Its AI Pricing Bet Even Riskier
• Negative Sentiment: Investors are concerned that location-based or “willingness-to-pay” pricing could create large price differences between nearby restaurants and trigger a consumer backlash similar to Wendy’s experience with dynamic-pricing messaging. McDonald’s has rejected the idea that it is secretly setting prices based on individual customers. McDonald’s AI Menu Pricing Creates Big Cost Gaps
• Negative Sentiment: The market is questioning whether the $8.5 billion investment will pressure near-term margins and whether the company can generate sufficient traffic growth in a value-conscious consumer environment. McDonald’s has suffered an unprecedented eight-week decline and is down about 24% year to date. McDonald’s Stock Plunges to 52-Week Low
• Negative Sentiment: Jefferies cut its price target, while another analyst downgrade helped push the shares to a new one-year low. Rising bond yields are also weighing on the appeal of McDonald’s dividend and high-debt business model. McDonald’s Stock Price Target Cut by Jefferies

McDonald’s Stock Up 0.4%

Shares of NYSE MCD traded up $0.99 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $231.93. The stock had a trading volume of 2,713,876 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,138,482. The company has a market capitalization of $164.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.85, a PEG ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 0.41. McDonald’s Corporation has a 1-year low of $229.61 and a 1-year high of $341.75. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $260.30 and a 200 day moving average price of $278.44.

McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The fast-food giant reported $3.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.06. McDonald’s had a net margin of 31.72% and a negative return on equity of 572.06%. The firm had revenue of $7.10 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.13 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.19 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that McDonald’s Corporation will post 12.85 EPS for the current year.

McDonald’s Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 1st will be issued a dividend of $1.93 per share. This represents a $7.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.3%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 1st. This is a positive change from McDonald’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.86. McDonald’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 60.44%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MCD has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on shares of McDonald’s from $335.00 to $310.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 24th. Rothschild & Co Redburn lowered their price objective on McDonald’s from $306.00 to $285.00 in a research report on Wednesday, August 26th. Evercore dropped their target price on McDonald’s from $320.00 to $300.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 24th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on McDonald’s from $260.00 to $250.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Melius Research decreased their price target on McDonald’s from $250.00 to $230.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have assigned a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $300.64.

About McDonald’s

McDonald’s Corporation is a global quick-service restaurant company that operates and franchises restaurants under the McDonald’s brand. Its restaurants serve a menu that includes hamburgers, cheeseburgers, chicken sandwiches, French fries, breakfast items, desserts, salads, beverages and coffee. Offerings vary by market, and many locations provide drive-thru service, delivery and digital ordering through the McDonald’s mobile app.

The company operates through a heavily franchised business model, with restaurants owned and operated by independent franchisees, affiliates and the company itself.