McDonald’s keeps up with changing tastes

Article Excerpt

MCDONALD’S CORP. $166 (New York symbol MCD; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector, Shares outstanding: 775.8 million; Market cap: $128.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 6.0; Dividend yield: 2.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.mcdonalds.com) is the world’s largest operator of fast-food restaurants, with over 37,000 outlets in 120 countries. It serves a wide variety of food, but is best known for its hamburgers and french fries. McDonald’s sales fell 18.8%, from $28.1 billion in 2013 to $22.8 billion in 2017. That’s mainly because it continues to sell company-owned stores to franchisees; ultimately they will operate 95% of its restaurants, up from today’s 92%. Overall earnings also declined 18.9%, from $5.6 billion in 2013 to $4.5 billion in 2015. McDonald’s is an active buyer of its own shares, so per-share earnings fell at a slower rate of 13.5%, from $5.55 to $4.80. Refranchising plan sparks turnaround Earnings then improved to $5.44 a share (or a total of $4.7 billion) in 2016, and rose again to $6.37 a share (or $5.2…