Fast food giant McDonald’s shared its fourth-quarter earnings on Monday, which missed the mark on revenue and showed a worrying U.S. comparable sales drop.
The company’s earnings in Q4 barely met the expectations from analysts, coming at adjusted $2.80 per share. However, the revenue declined compared to the same period last year and missed the Wall Street estimates. McDonald’s reported revenue of $6.39 billion while analysts expected $6.44 billion.
McDonald’s recorded a 0.4% growth in global comparable sales versus a forecasted 0.41% drop. However, the chain’s performance in the United States, its biggest market, has greatly missed the mark.
The comparable sales in the U.S. have declined by 1.4% compared to 0.4% slide expected by analysts. It marked the company’s worst decline in almost five years. McDonald’s managed to “slightly” improve traffic in its stores thanks to a variety of deals and discounts, but the customers didn’t spend as much as expected.
January is expected to be another challenging month for McDonald’s despite the company’s efforts to boost sales with budget friendly McValue menu. However, experts are still convinced that the company will manage to make up the ground later in 2025. Out of 21 Wall Street analysts tracked by TipRanks, 13 have “Buy” or equivalent rating on McDonald’s stock while nine have “Hold” or equivalent rating.
McDonald’s stock jumped by 2.62% in pre-market trading on Monday compared to the previous close price of $294.30 per share.