Two Sigma Securities LLC Reduces Position in McDonald's Co. (NYSE:MCD)

Two Sigma Securities LLC reduced its stake in shares of McDonald's Co. (NYSE:MCD - Free Report) by 88.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,837 shares of the fast-food giant's stock after selling 14,392 shares during the quarter. Two Sigma Securities LLC's holdings in McDonald's were worth $533,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Mattern Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in McDonald's by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Mattern Capital Management LLC now owns 30,110 shares of the fast-food giant's stock valued at $8,729,000 after purchasing an additional 579 shares in the last quarter. Bell Bank grew its position in McDonald's by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. Bell Bank now owns 12,699 shares of the fast-food giant's stock valued at $3,681,000 after acquiring an additional 371 shares during the period. YANKCOM Partnership acquired a new position in McDonald's during the fourth quarter worth $1,628,000. Integral Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of McDonald's by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Integral Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 6,512 shares of the fast-food giant's stock valued at $1,888,000 after acquiring an additional 164 shares during the period. Finally, PFW Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of McDonald's in the 4th quarter valued at $2,471,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.29% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at McDonald's

In other McDonald's news, insider Joseph M. Erlinger sold 939 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $318.50, for a total transaction of $299,071.50. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 12,100 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,853,850. This represents a 7.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Christopher J. Kempczinski sold 10,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $310.05, for a total value of $3,255,525.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 32,756 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,155,997.80. This represents a 24.27 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 28,136 shares of company stock worth $8,676,247 in the last quarter. 0.25% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on MCD. TD Securities restated a "hold" rating and issued a $300.00 price target on shares of McDonald's in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Wedbush increased their price target on McDonald's from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on McDonald's from $340.00 to $335.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Bank of America raised their target price on McDonald's from $312.00 to $316.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on McDonald's from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, McDonald's presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $324.43.

McDonald's Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE MCD traded down $0.83 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $312.82. The company had a trading volume of 1,944,526 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,559,300. McDonald's Co. has a one year low of $243.53 and a one year high of $326.32. The company has a market capitalization of $223.69 billion, a PE ratio of 27.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 0.62. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $309.14 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $300.09.

McDonald's (NYSE:MCD - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The fast-food giant reported $2.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts' consensus estimates of $2.67. The company had revenue of $5.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $6.17 billion. McDonald's had a net margin of 31.73% and a negative return on equity of 181.63%. McDonald's's quarterly revenue was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.70 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that McDonald's Co. will post 12.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

McDonald's Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a dividend of $1.77 per share. This represents a $7.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. McDonald's's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 62.16%.

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.