On Friday, Loop Capital upheld its Buy rating on McDonald's Corporation (NYSE:MCD) shares, maintaining a price target of $342.00.
The decision followed a series of checks with U.S. franchisees which revealed that McDonald's same-store sales growth was slightly below expectations in the fourth quarter of 2024.
"Per our contacts, same-store sales remained sluggish at flat year-over-year during the last seven weeks of 4Q," the analysts said.
This performance suggests that the full-quarter same-store sales were flat to down by 0.5%, which is slightly lower than the previously estimated growth of 0.5% and the consensus projection of a 0.3% increase.
Despite this, the analysis indicates that on a two-year stacked basis, the flat to slightly negative comparable sales in Q4 would represent a 3.8% to 4.3% increase. This is a dip from the 8.4% two-year stack reported in the third quarter of 2024. However, when looking at the implied three-year stacks of 14.1% to 14.6%, the figures are consistent with the 14.5% three-year stacks reported by McDonald's for the third quarter.
Loop Capital's confidence in McDonald's stock remains steadfast, with the maintained price target based on an estimated 18.5 times the 2025 enterprise value to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EV/EBITDA).
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