Sterling Investment Counsel LLC Trims Holdings in McDonald’s Corporation $MCD

Sterling Investment Counsel LLC reduced its holdings in shares of McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD) by 47.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,241 shares of the fast-food giant’s stock after selling 2,013 shares during the quarter. Sterling Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings in McDonald’s were worth $655,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its stake in McDonald’s by 21.6% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 9,286 shares of the fast-food giant’s stock worth $2,692,000 after purchasing an additional 1,649 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in McDonald’s by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,942 shares of the fast-food giant’s stock worth $563,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in McDonald’s by 10.9% during the first quarter. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC now owns 2,616 shares of the fast-food giant’s stock worth $817,000 after purchasing an additional 258 shares during the last quarter. Clare Market Investments LLC lifted its stake in McDonald’s by 14.8% during the first quarter. Clare Market Investments LLC now owns 1,987 shares of the fast-food giant’s stock worth $621,000 after purchasing an additional 256 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Matrix Trust Co lifted its stake in McDonald’s by 1.1% during the first quarter. Matrix Trust Co now owns 7,571 shares of the fast-food giant’s stock worth $2,365,000 after purchasing an additional 86 shares during the last quarter. 70.29% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on McDonald’s from $305.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on McDonald’s from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th. Citigroup raised their price objective on McDonald’s from $373.00 to $381.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 17th. Argus cut McDonald’s from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, June 13th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on McDonald’s from $355.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $325.86.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CMO Edith Morgan Flatley sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $300.00, for a total transaction of $300,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer directly owned 8,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,657,400. This trade represents a 10.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Joseph M. Erlinger sold 939 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $299.49, for a total value of $281,221.11. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 9,283 shares in the company, valued at $2,780,165.67. This trade represents a 9.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 7,402 shares of company stock valued at $2,273,407 over the last three months. 0.25% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

McDonald’s Stock Performance

MCD stock opened at $300.09 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $214.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.71, a PEG ratio of 3.06 and a beta of 0.50. McDonald’s Corporation has a 1 year low of $276.53 and a 1 year high of $326.32. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $306.88 and its two-hundred day moving average is $306.19.

McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The fast-food giant reported $3.19 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.15 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $6.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.68 billion. McDonald’s had a negative return on equity of 225.52% and a net margin of 32.21%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.97 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that McDonald’s Corporation will post 12.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

McDonald’s Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 16th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 2nd were issued a dividend of $1.77 per share. This represents a $7.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 2nd. McDonald’s’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 60.67%.

McDonald’s Company 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.