McDonald’s Becomes America’s Great Stock

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
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McDonald’s Becomes America’s Great Stock

© McDonald's (Kodak, Tennessee) (CC BY 2.0) by JJBers

McDonald’s is the largest fast-food chain in America. It is also among America’s most famous and valuable brands. It is unusual because its sales do well in recessions and economic recoveries. This makes McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD | MCD Price Prediction) a particularly attractive stock for people as the United States goes through a rocky economic period.
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McDonald’s revenue was flat in the most recent quarter at $5.93 billion. Net income rose 16% to $1.9 billion. Comparable store sales rose 12.6% year over year across the whole system of stores and by 10.3% in America. (Click here for how fast-food prices rose and fell in 2022.)
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The McDonald’s system is set up so that franchisees own most stores. They were about two-thirds of revenue last year.

McDonald’s shareholders have been rewarded for its financial success. While the overall market is down about 15% in the last year, McDonald’s shares are up 1%, and it carries a dividend yield of 2.3%.
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McDonald’s all-weather success is tied to a value proposition. While its food may not be at the healthy end of the scale, its menus appeal to many Americans. Its pricing system is clever and creates loyalty. McDonald’s still offers frequent customers $0.99 coffee and free French fries.
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McDonald’s discovered one means of success was 24-hour operations. Although sales per store may be light at night, they help create a loyal customer base. McDonald’s discovered decades ago that a separate breakfast menu had tremendous appeal.

A final advantage of McDonald’s is that it has a business model that will not change. Stability has natural advantages in a business that prizes consistency.

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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