McDonald's (MCD) closed the most recent trading day at $184.37, moving -0.84% from the previous trading session. This change was narrower than the S&P 500's 1.97% loss on the day. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 2.32%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 2.78%.
Coming into today, shares of the world's biggest hamburger chain had gained 14.09% in the past month. In that same time, the Retail-Wholesale sector lost 1.88%, while the S&P 500 lost 3.33%.
Investors will be hoping for strength from MCD as it approaches its next earnings release, which is expected to be January 29, 2019. In that report, analysts expect MCD to post earnings of $1.89 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 10.53%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $5.16 billion, down 3.39% from the year-ago period.
For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $7.75 per share and revenue of $21.03 billion, which would represent changes of +16.37% and -7.86%, respectively, from the prior year.
Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for MCD. 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. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 1.25% higher. MCD currently has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
Valuation is also important, so investors should note that MCD has a Forward P/E ratio of 24 right now. This valuation marks a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 24.07.
We can also see that MCD currently has a PEG ratio of 2.73. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. The Retail - Restaurants industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.86 as of yesterday's close.
The Retail - Restaurants industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 165, which puts it in the bottom 36% 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.
You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.
McDonald's Corporation (NYSE:MCD
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Zacks Investment Research