McDonald’s Rallies To All-Time High
Dow component McDonald’s Corp. (MCD) has defied the odds in the struggling restaurant sector this week, breaking out above the August 2019 high and posting an all-time high near 225. The company added to gains on Wednesday morning after Business Insider reported that a promotion featuring rapper and singer Travis Scott has caused a shortage of burger ingredients due to overwhelming demand.
McDonald’s New Marketing Initiatives
McDonald’s has started to broaden marketing innovation at restaurants that have now reopened around the world, in an effort to energize already improving monthly sales trends. Current and planned initiatives include broader appeals to Millennials, Generation Z, and ethnic users by featuring more “unique and flavorful meals, products that include the new Spicy Chicken McNuggets, and increasing the use of celebrity spokespersons”.
Telsey Advisory Group analyst Bob Derington raised his price target from $210 to $230 last week, telling clients “we believe new products and cross promotions could broaden McDonald’s appeal to some typically hard to reach user groups, adding potential upside to our same store sales estimates. And to build on its sales momentum, before year-end we believe McDonald’s will introduce some new Breakfast product news and follow that with its long-awaited new Chicken Sandwich, designed to be more competitive with Chick-fil-A.”
Wall Street And Technical Outlook
Wall Street consensus is solidly bullish, with a ‘Strong Buy’ rating based upon 16 ‘Buy’, 5 ‘Hold’, and no ‘Sell’ recommendations. Price targets currently range from a low of $195 to a street-high $245 while the stock is now trading $6 above the median $218 target and just $21 below the high target. Given this lofty placement, more analysts may need to raise their targets to support additional upside.
The breakout could run into a roadblock in the next few sessions, with accumulation-distribution indicators near resistance levels that triggered large-scale reversals in August 2019 and February 2020. As a result, new investors should maintain tight stop losses until these bearish divergences come off the books. Fortunately for bulls, it will only take two or three higher-than-average buying volume sessions to complete the task and open the door to 250.
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This article was originally posted on FX Empire
