Great Lakes Retirement Inc. Reduces Holdings in McDonald’s Co. (NYSE:MCD)

Great Lakes Retirement Inc. decreased its position in shares of McDonald’s Co. (NYSE:MCD) by 6.8% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 4,870 shares of the fast-food giant’s stock after selling 354 shares during the quarter. Great Lakes Retirement Inc.’s holdings in McDonald’s were worth $1,521,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of McDonald’s by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 70,169,342 shares of the fast-food giant’s stock worth $20,341,391,000 after buying an additional 526,466 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of McDonald’s by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 16,074,438 shares of the fast-food giant’s stock worth $4,652,768,000 after buying an additional 157,458 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in shares of McDonald’s by 5.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 10,652,445 shares of the fast-food giant’s stock worth $3,088,037,000 after buying an additional 531,070 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of McDonald’s during the fourth quarter worth about $2,725,190,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of McDonald’s by 11.2% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 8,867,193 shares of the fast-food giant’s stock worth $2,570,511,000 after buying an additional 895,896 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.29% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other McDonald’s news, insider Joseph M. Erlinger sold 939 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.07, for a total value of $295,850.73. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 11,161 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,516,496.27. This represents a 7.76% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.25% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of McDonald’s from $347.00 to $355.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $324.00 target price (down from $329.00) on shares of McDonald’s in a report on Monday, June 9th. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $345.00 price objective (up from $340.00) on shares of McDonald’s in a research note on Monday, May 5th. Truist Financial set a $350.00 target price on shares of McDonald’s in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Erste Group Bank lowered shares of McDonald’s from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have assigned a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $321.79.

McDonald’s Trading Down 0.5%

Shares of NYSE:MCD opened at $301.57 on Monday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $311.95 and a 200-day moving average of $303.03. The firm has a market cap of $215.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.48, a P/E/G ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 0.56. McDonald’s Co. has a twelve month low of $243.53 and a twelve month high of $326.32.

McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The fast-food giant reported $2.67 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $2.67. McDonald’s had a net margin of 31.73% and a negative return on equity of 181.63%. The business had revenue of $5.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.17 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.70 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that McDonald’s Co. will post 12.25 EPS for the current year.

McDonald’s Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 2nd will be issued a dividend of $1.77 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 2nd. This represents a $7.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.35%. McDonald’s’s dividend payout ratio is currently 62.49%.

McDonald’s Profile

McDonald’s Corp. engages in the operation and franchising of restaurants. It operates through the following segments: U.S., International Operated Markets, and International Developmental Licensed Markets and Corporate. The U.S. segment focuses its operations on the United States. The International Operated Markets segment consists of operations and the franchising of restaurants in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and the U.K.