Turnaround plan will fuel McD’s earnings

Article Excerpt

MCDONALD’S CORP. $97 (New York symbol MCD; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 958.5 million; Market cap: $93.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.5; Dividend yield: 3.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.mcdonalds .com) earned $811.5 million in the three months ended March 31, 2015, down 32.6% from $1.2 billion a year earlier. Per-share profits fell 30.6%, to $0.84 from $1.21, on fewer shares outstanding. The company is closing less-profitable restaurants, simplifying its menus and speeding up its drive-through lanes as part of a new restructuring plan. If you exclude unusual items and the negative impact of currency exchange rates, McDonald’s earned $1.10 a share in the latest quarter. Sales fell 11.1%, to $6.0 billion from $6.7 billion. A drop in customer traffic cut same-store sales by 2.3%. U.S. same-store sales declined 2.6%, mainly due to strong competition from other fast food chains. European same-store sales fell 0.6%, as gains in the U.K. and France offset weaker sales in Russia. Asian same-store…