Once in a while, even the more bullish analysts tracking the popular company get less enthusiastic about it.
McDonald’s (MCD -0.27%) is a popular stock that frequently wins praise from market professionals. The downside of this is that, at times, when even a slight dip in that esteem happens, it can put a damper on the fast-food king’s shares. This happened on Hump Day with an analyst’s price target cut.
The result of this was that McDonald’s stock took a slight (0.3%) hit to its share price across the trading session. That was notably better than the 2.3% stumble of the S&P 500 index.
A $30 haircut
The analyst doing the price target shaving was UBS‘s Dennis Geiger. Well before market hours, he reduced his fair value estimation of McDonald’s to $305 per share from his preceding $335. That cut wasn’t deep enough for Geiger to change his hopeful recommendation on the stock, which remains buy.
Even at the lowered price target, McDonald’s still has double-digit upside. That new $305 level is 18% above the stock’s most recent close.
The reasoning behind Geiger’s move wasn’t immediately clear. It doesn’t seem coincidental, though, that it came two days after McDonald’s announced it was extending its $5 value meal deal. The offering was launched at the end of June for an initial four-week period, but it has proven popular enough for the company to consider extending the arrangement.
The summer of the $5 meal
According to reports from media outlets such as Bloomberg and Reuters, roughly 93% of McDonald’s locations have pledged to extend the deal, although the length seems to vary. Some of those franchisees will honor it through August; the term for the others might be more limited.
Regardless, it’s a sign that McDonald’s is in tune with and being responsive to the desires of its customers. The question is how such a generous discount will affect the company’s fundamentals.
Eric Volkman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
