Can Earnings at McDonald’s Escape the Hangman?

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By Jon C. Ogg Updated Published
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McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) is set to report earnings on Tuesday morning. As this fast-food giant has been showing negative sales trends at the same time that it has been the target of labor movements, 24/7 Wall St. wanted to conduct a full 360-degree earnings preview for the fast-food giant. The underlying question remains: Can McDonald’s escape the hangman?

Thomson Reuters has estimates of $1.38 in earnings per share and revenues of $7.198 billion. These represent a drop of almost 9% in earnings and a drop of almost 2% in revenue.

If McDonald’s offers up guidance, the Thomson Reuters consensus estimate is $1.34 in earnings per share (versus $1.40 a year ago) and $6.99 billion in revenue (down 1.5% from a year ago).

Again, the negative sales trends have been more than persistent. They have been ongoing for months. Even the move to a healthier choice of menu items has failed to change the trends.

The stock chart for McDonald’s shares is awful. After having been above $100 in June, the share price of close to $90 is well below long-term moving averages. Its 50-day moving average is $93.20 and the 200-day moving average is up at $95.78.

The $91.30 share price of late Monday afternoon compares to a consensus price target of $98.35. The last formal analyst downgrade we tracked was from Morgan Stanley back on October 6, with that rating being cut to Equal Weight from Overweight.

ALSO READ: IBM Makes Worst DJIA Earnings Report

Options traders are not exactly looking for a huge move. Our latest review of options shows that options traders are expecting a move of up to about $1.60 in either direction. Options trading looks more skewed to the call options, a bullish bias in theory, but neither is witnessing screaming volume.

McDonald’s was trading at $91.24, against a 52-week range of $89.34 to $103.78. McDonald’s has a market cap of nearly $90 billion.

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About the Author Jon C. Ogg →

Jon Ogg has been a financial news analyst since 1997. Mr. Ogg set up one of the first audio squawk box services for traders called TTN, which he sold in 2003. He has previously worked as a licensed broker to some of the top U.S. and E.U. financial institutions, managed capital, and has raised private capital at the seed and venture stage. He has lived in Copenhagen, Denmark, as well as New York and Chicago, and he now lives in Houston, Texas. Jon received a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance at University of Houston in 1992. a673b.bigscoots-temp.com.

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