McDonald’s (MCD) – Impressive Sales Growth

With an increased suite of product offerings, McDonald’s (MCD) continues to show impressive sales growth as compared to its competitors. The overall sales worldwide rose by 16.3% and the same-store sales grew by 8.2%. This boost has come from markets outside of US. While, the US market grew by 4.4%, Europe grew by 10.8% and the rest of world grew by an impressive 12.0%. The news is the latest in a series of good reports for McDonald’s, including the October’s third-quarter filing, which reported net income up 27% despite increased dairy costs, mostly on cheese.

The entry into the breakfast market and introduction of new products has helped in this growth. McDonald’s first launched its premium coffee about 18 months ago, followed by limited tests of sweet tea and iced coffee. Since then, it has also added the premium coffee drinks at about 800 of its restaurants in the United States. Over the next year and a half, McDonald’s plans to introduce the premium coffee into rest of the market. The biggest win was when the Consumer Reports ranked its premium coffee No. 1, beating Starbucks (SBUX), Dunkin’ Donuts and Burger King (BKC) on taste and value.

Don Thompson, president of McDonald’s USA, said in a recent meeting with analysts – “We want to move from beverages as an accompaniment to being a beverage destination. Our speed, our convenience, the value that we can afford to customers without compromising quality will make McDonald’s a formidable player”. The restaurants will offer lattes, mochas, cappuccinos and espressos with a choice of different flavorings and milk. The drinks are expected to cost about 50 cents less than at Starbucks.

Competition:
The entry of McDonald’s into coffeehouse business comes at a worse time for Starbucks, the world’s largest chain of coffeehouses. Over the last one year, Starbucks has been struggling with rising dairy prices, growing competition and flattening of store traffic in the United States.

Share Price:
McDonald’s shares rose to $61 on Dec 13th after reaching a high of $63.49 on Dec 11th. The stock price has shown an impressive growth of 41% in the last one year. During the same period, the stock price of its competitors has been falling. The stock price of Starbuck has fallen 40% over the same period (from $36.27 to $21.50).

Covered Calls:
The following covered call investing position was found for McDonalds using PowerOptions search tool.

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[tags] BKC, Burger King Holdings Inc., MCD, McDonalds Corp., SBUX, Starbucks Corp., covered call investing, covered call investment strategy, investment strategy, iron condor, poweroptions, stock option trading, stock options [/tags]