In the latest market close, McDonald's (MCD) reached $308.72, with a -0.83% movement compared to the previous day. The stock exceeded the S&P 500, which registered a loss of 2.36% for the day. At the same time, the Dow lost 2.48%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 2.55%.

The the stock of world's biggest hamburger chain has risen by 1.92% in the past month, leading the Retail-Wholesale sector's loss of 4.2% and the S&P 500's loss of 5.6%.

The investment community will be closely monitoring the performance of McDonald's in its forthcoming earnings report. The company is scheduled to release its earnings on May 1, 2025. In that report, analysts expect McDonald's to post earnings of $2.65 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 1.85%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $6.11 billion, down 0.97% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $12.23 per share and revenue of $26.41 billion, which would represent changes of +4.35% and +1.9%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for McDonald's. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Our research reveals that these estimate alterations are directly linked with the stock price performance in the near future. To take advantage of this, we've established the Zacks Rank, an exclusive model that considers these estimated changes and delivers an operational rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.04% higher. McDonald's presently features a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that McDonald's has a Forward P/E ratio of 25.45 right now. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 21.08.

It is also worth noting that MCD currently has a PEG ratio of 3.19. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. As the market closed yesterday, the Retail - Restaurants industry was having an average PEG ratio of 2.06.

The Retail - Restaurants industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 202, which puts it in the bottom 19% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank is ordered from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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