Editor's Note: Lovin' it... Veteran Hedgeye Restaurants analyst Howard Penney's bullish, non-consensus call on McDonald's continues to pay off for those who listened. See WSJ story today, McDonald’s Profit Climbs, Showing Turnaround Is Sustainable. Shares of MCD are up over 21% since his article was published on Fortune. The stock is up 27% since it was added to Investing Ideas on August 11, 2015 versus 0.36% for the S&P 500.
The fast-food chain’s stock will likely pop next year, thanks to its real estate holdings and its ‘All-Day Breakfast’ menu.
Last week, McDonald’s shares jumped 1.5%, amid speculation that the fast-food giant might spin-off its massive real-estate holdings. That looks increasingly likely under the activist-like new CEO, Steve Easterbrook. It’s another welcome development and a broader sign that McDonald’s is finally turning the corner. Our prediction: This year will be the last time McDonald’s stock sees a price below $100.
Let’s be clear. A lot has changed at McDonald’s in the past year. Within the first two months of becoming CEO earlier this year, Easterbrook announced $300 million in cost cutting measures, a move that includes refranchising 3,500 stores of its 36,290 stores globally and shutting down an additional 700. McDonald’s MCD -0.35% will soon use technology, such as self-ordering kiosks, to change the customer experience while rejiggering its menu, dropping some, adding others and improving its existing products. In October, for instance, McDonald’s announced that it would take “All-Day Breakfast” nationwide. Meanwhile...
