McDonald's (MCD) Stock Price, News & Analysis

Company Overview

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. McDonald’s serves customers in markets across North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa. Its restaurants are supported by standardized branding, operating procedures, marketing and global supply-chain relationships.

McDonald’s traces its origins to a restaurant opened by brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald in San Bernardino, California, in 1940. Ray Kroc joined the business as a franchise agent in the 1950s and helped develop the company’s large-scale franchise system. Chris Kempczinski serves as the company’s president and chief executive officer.

Key Stats

• Today's Range: $252.78 to $255.56
• 50-Day Range: $253.59 to $282.30
• 52-Week Range: $252.78 to $341.75
• Volume: 746,954 shs
• Average Volume: 3.92 million shs
• Market Capitalization: $179.29 billion
• P/E Ratio: 20.57
• Dividend Yield: 2.94%
• Price Target: $321.35
• Consensus Rating: Moderate Buy

McDonald's Stock Analysis - MarketRank™

McDonald's scored higher than 99% of companies evaluated by MarketBeat, and ranked 7th out of 481 stocks in the consumer discretionary sector. Scores are calculated by averaging available category scores, with extra weight given to analysis and valuation.

Analyst's Opinion

• Score: 4.3 / 5
• Analyst Rating: Moderate Buy

Consensus Rating

McDonald's has received a consensus rating of Moderate Buy. The company's average rating score is 2.63, and is based on 1 strong buy rating, 15 buy ratings, 11 hold ratings, and no sell ratings.

Upside Potential

McDonald's has a consensus price target of $321.35, representing about 26.7% upside from its current price of $253.59.

Amount of Analyst Coverage

McDonald's has been the subject of 17 research reports in the past 90 days, demonstrating strong analyst interest in this stock.

Earnings and Valuation

• Score: 2.5 / 5
• Proj. Earnings Growth: 8.00%

Earnings Growth

Earnings for McDonald's are expected to grow by 8.00% in the coming year, from $12.88 to $13.91 per share.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. the Market

The P/E ratio of McDonald's is 20.60, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the market average P/E ratio of about 39.09.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. Sector

The P/E ratio of McDonald's is 20.60, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the Consumer Discretionary sector average P/E ratio of about 45.81.

Price to Earnings Growth Ratio

McDonald's has a PEG Ratio of 2.76. PEG Ratios above 1 indicate that a company could be overvalued.

Short Interest

• Score: 5.0 / 5
• Short Interest Level: Healthy

Percentage of Shares Shorted

1.57% of the float of McDonald's has been sold short.

Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

McDonald's has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 2.32, which is generally considered an acceptable ratio of short interest to trading volume.

Change versus previous month

Short interest in McDonald's has recently decreased by 9.77%, indicating that investor sentiment is improving significantly.

Dividend

• Score: 4.2 / 5
• Dividend Strength: Strong

Dividend Yield

McDonald's pays a meaningful dividend of 2.91%, higher than the bottom 25% of all stocks that pay dividends.

Dividend Growth

McDonald's has been increasing its dividend for 49 years.

Dividend Coverage

The dividend payout ratio of McDonald's is 60.44%. This payout ratio is at a healthy, sustainable level, below 75%.

Dividend Sustainability

Based on earnings estimates, McDonald's will have a dividend payout ratio of 53.49% next year. This indicates that McDonald's will be able to sustain or increase its dividend.

News and Social Media

• Score: 3.4 / 5
• News Sentiment: 0.45

News Sentiment

McDonald's has a news sentiment score of 0.45. This score is calculated as an average of sentiment of articles about the company over the last seven days and ranges from 2 (good news) to -2 (bad news). This is a lower news sentiment than the 0.66 average news sentiment score of Consumer Discretionary companies.

News Coverage This Week

MarketBeat has tracked 80 news articles for McDonald's this week, compared to 10 articles on an average week.

Search Interest

111 people have searched for MCD on MarketBeat in the last 30 days. This is an increase of 46% compared to the previous 30 days.

MarketBeat Follows

56 people have added McDonald's to their MarketBeat watchlist in the last 30 days. This is an increase of 115% compared to the previous 30 days.

Company Ownership

• Score: 1.4 / 5
• Insider Trading: Selling Shares

Insider Buying vs. Insider Selling

In the past three months, McDonald's insiders have sold more of their company's stock than they have bought. Specifically, they have bought $0.00 in company stock and sold $1,493,249.00 in company stock.

Percentage Held by Insiders

0.26% of the stock of McDonald's is held by insiders.

Percentage Held by Institutions

70.29% of the stock of McDonald's is held by institutions. High institutional ownership can be a signal of strong market trust in this company.

Company Calendar

• Record date for 6/16 Dividend: 6/02/2026
• Ex-Dividend for 6/16 Dividend: 6/02/2026
• Dividend Payable: 6/16/2026
• Last Earnings: 8/04/2026
• Record date for 9/16 Dividend: 9/01/2026
• Ex-Dividend for 9/16 Dividend: 9/01/2026
• Today: 9/10/2026
• Dividend Payable: 9/16/2026
• Investor Day 2026: 9/23/2026
• Next Earnings (Estimated): 11/04/2026
• Fiscal Year End: 12/31/2026

Industry, Sector and Symbol

• Stock Exchange: NYSE
• Sector: Consumer Discretionary
• Industry: Hotels, Restaurants & Leisure
• Sub-Industry: Restaurants
• Current Symbol: NYSE:MCD
• Previous Symbol: NYSE:MCD
• CIK: 63908
• Web: www.mcdonalds.com
• Phone: (630) 623-3000
• Fax: 630-623-5004
• Employees: 150,000
• Year Founded: 1954

Price Target and Rating

• Average Price Target for McDonald's: $321.35
• High Price Target: $390.00
• Low Price Target: $285.00
• Potential Upside/Downside: +26.9%
• Consensus Rating: Moderate Buy
• Rating Score (0-4): 2.63
• Research Coverage: 27 Analysts

Profitability

• EPS (Trailing Twelve Months): $12.31
• Trailing P/E Ratio: 20.57
• Forward P/E Ratio: 19.66
• P/E Growth: 2.76
• Net Income: $8.56 billion
• Net Margins: 31.72%
• Pretax Margin: 40.37%
• Return on Equity: -572.06%
• Return on Assets: 14.92%

Debt

• Debt-to-Equity Ratio: N/A
• Current Ratio: 1.08
• Quick Ratio: 1.07

Sales & Book Value

• Annual Sales: $26.89 billion
• Price / Sales: 6.67
• Cash Flow: $15.21 per share
• Price / Cash Flow: 16.65
• Book Value: ($2.51) per share
• Price / Book: -100.90

Miscellaneous

• Outstanding Shares: 707,640,000
• Free Float: 705,802,000
• Market Cap: $179.21 billion
• Optionable: Optionable
• Beta: 0.41