McDonald's (MCD) Stock Moves -0.35%: What You Should Know

McDonald's (MCD) closed at $246.88 in the latest trading session, marking a -0.35% move from the prior day. This change was narrower than the S&P 500's 0.88% loss on the day. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 0.82%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.08%.

Coming into today, shares of the world's biggest hamburger chain had lost 0.62% in the past month. In that same time, the Retail-Wholesale sector lost 4.09%, while the S&P 500 lost 8.06%.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from McDonald's as it approaches its next earnings report date. On that day, McDonald's is projected to report earnings of $2.46 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 3.8%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $5.85 billion, down 0.63% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $9.78 per share and revenue of $23.45 billion. These totals would mark changes of +5.39% and +0.98%, respectively, from last year.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for McDonald's. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. 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. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.2% lower within the past month. McDonald's currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

In terms of valuation, McDonald's is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 25.34. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 17.93.

Investors should also note that MCD has a PEG ratio of 3.16 right now. 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. Retail - Restaurants stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 1.73 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Retail - Restaurants industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 197, putting it in the bottom 23% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.

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