Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC Acquires 447 Shares of McDonald’s Co. (NYSE:MCD)

Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in McDonald’s Co. (NYSE:MCD) by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 15,720 shares of the fast-food giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 447 shares during the quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC’s holdings in McDonald’s were worth $4,787,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in MCD. Quent Capital LLC increased its position in shares of McDonald’s by 10.4% during the first quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 3,006 shares of the fast-food giant’s stock valued at $848,000 after acquiring an additional 282 shares during the last quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL boosted its stake in McDonald’s by 22.5% in the first quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 2,083 shares of the fast-food giant’s stock valued at $587,000 after acquiring an additional 383 shares during the last quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC grew its position in shares of McDonald’s by 40.0% during the 1st quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 1,050 shares of the fast-food giant’s stock valued at $296,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares during the period. Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of McDonald’s by 43.4% during the 1st quarter. Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC now owns 3,075 shares of the fast-food giant’s stock worth $867,000 after purchasing an additional 931 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Waverly Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of McDonald’s by 161.3% during the 1st quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC now owns 14,438 shares of the fast-food giant’s stock worth $4,071,000 after purchasing an additional 8,912 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.29% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other McDonald’s news, CEO Christopher J. Kempczinski sold 11,727 shares of McDonald’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $300.03, for a total transaction of $3,518,451.81. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 49,885 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,966,996.55. The trade was a 19.03 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Ian Frederick Borden sold 5,939 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $300.04, for a total value of $1,781,937.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 20,403 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,121,716.12. This represents a 22.55 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 34,498 shares of company stock valued at $10,381,296. 0.23% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have weighed in on MCD shares. Citigroup increased their price objective on McDonald’s from $301.00 to $317.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Tigress Financial increased their price target on McDonald’s from $355.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. UBS Group boosted their price objective on McDonald’s from $305.00 to $345.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of McDonald’s from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of McDonald’s from $320.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $319.46.

McDonald’s Price Performance

MCD stock opened at $290.28 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $299.85 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $278.20. The stock has a market cap of $208.02 billion, a PE ratio of 25.49, a P/E/G ratio of 3.86 and a beta of 0.74. McDonald’s Co. has a one year low of $243.53 and a one year high of $317.90.

McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The fast-food giant reported $3.23 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.18 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $6.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.82 billion. McDonald’s had a negative return on equity of 175.42% and a net margin of 31.79%. McDonald’s’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.19 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that McDonald’s Co. will post 11.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

McDonald’s Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be paid a $1.77 dividend. This represents a $7.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.44%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 2nd. This is a positive change from McDonald’s’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.67. McDonald’s’s payout ratio is 58.65%.

McDonald’s Profile

McDonald's Corporation operates and franchises restaurants under the McDonald's brand in the United States and internationally. It offers food and beverages, including hamburgers and cheeseburgers, various chicken sandwiches, fries, shakes, desserts, sundaes, cookies, pies, soft drinks, coffee, and other beverages; and full or limited breakfast, as well as sells various other products during limited-time promotions.