Topic: How To Invest

Wall Street Stock Forecaster Hotline – Friday, February 9, 2024

Article Excerpt

MCDONALD’S CORP., $289.47, New York symbol MCD, is your #1 Conservative Buy for 2024. The company is the world’s largest fast-food chain with over 40,000 restaurants in 119 countries. It serves a wide variety of food but is best known for its hamburgers and french fries. McDonald’s continues to benefit from strong U.S. customer traffic, despite raising its prices in response to higher food and labour costs. However, the conflict in the Middle East hurt traffic and sales at its international locations. In the quarter ended December 31, 2023, revenue rose 8.1%, to $6.41 billion from $5.93 billion a year earlier. However, that missed the consensus forecast of $6.45 billion. Overall same-store sales rose 3.4% thanks to gains for all three of its divisions: U.S., up 4.3%; International Operated Markets (Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the U.K.), up 4.4%; and International Developmental Licensed Markets (mainly outlets in China, Japan, the Middle East and remaining markets), up 0.7%. If you factor out unusual…