McDonald’s Corporation: Automated Locations & Other Drivers, Financial Forecasts, DCF & Comparables Valuation, ESG & Other Risks (02/23)

McDonald’s delivered an all-around beat in its last result as it continued advancing its brand's top-line momentum and global reach. For the fourth quarter, comparable sales increased by double digits, and they kept gaining market share in most key markets. The company used its digital platforms and promoted its staple menu in the internationally operated markets, achieving comp sales growth of about 13% for the quarter. They also introduced McCrispy Chicken Sandwich in Q4. The chicken category

McDonald's Corporation: Major Drivers, Financial Forecasts, DCF & Comparables Valuation, ESG & Other Risks (11/22)

McDonald's delivered a solid Q3 performance surpassing Wall Street expectations on all counts which is why its stock price has been surging over the past few weeks. The company's sustained resiliency is demonstrated by its quarterly global comp sales, which increased by 9.5%. Their market-wide quarterly comp sales were hurt by the expiration of the VAT benefits. However, they are still expanding their QSR market share. In the quarter, the chicken was a significant contributor to comp sales growt

McDonald’s Corporation: Competitive Advantage, New Products & Other Drivers, Financial Forecasts, DCF & Comparables Valuation, ESG & Other Risks (08/22)

McDonald's has been witnessing a broad-based business momentum and saw its global comparable sales rising almost 10% with most of its key markets maintaining market share gains in the last quarter. Despite this, the company failed to meet Wall Street expectations with respect to its revenues though it did manage to deliver an earnings beat. McDonalds benefited from its digital platforms and the team continued to increase QSR traffic share in their internationally operated markets. There has been

McDonald’s Corporation.: Menu Innovation & Other Drivers, Financial Forecasts, DCF & Comparables Valuation, ESG & Other Risks (05/22)

McDonalds had a decent top-line result in this quarter representing a continuation of the broad-based business momentum of the brand all over the world. The internationally operated markets of the company have been recovering. France has benefitted from a strong menu, strength in delivery, and marketing promotions that focus on family. The performance of MacD in Australia and China has been impacted because of stay-at-home restrictions. In Canada, the company had a strong result that was driven

McDonalds: Financial & Price Forecasts, DCF Valuation, ESG Risks 02/22

McDonald's has gone through its fair share of ups and downs especially after the recent impact of the Omicron variant on its business in many key geographies. Despite the numerous disruptions caused by Covid-19, their performance has been fairly decent. The company’s past result was below market expectations though its performance in 2021 as a whole has been fairly good when compared to the 2019 data. The management has made significant investments behind their brand purpose to feed and foster c

McDonald's: Always A Delicious Investment (12/2021)

McDonald's' has continued with its bull run after another positive set of quarterly results. The global fast-food giant witnessed a wide-ranging business momentum worldwide with global comp sales, up nearly 13% and around 10% on a two-year basis. Their 40,000 restaurants in over 100 countries are operated by local owner-operators are providing the management with increased agility to complement the company's size and scale, allowing local teams to adapt and adjust to operating conditions that di

McDonald's Corp - Investment Thesis, Key Drivers, Financial & Price Forecasts, DCF Valuation 9/21

Fast food titan, McDonald's delivered a solid set of results for the second quarter surpassing Wall Street expectations and is poised for a strong year ahead. The company saw its global comparable sales grow by a staggering 40% and around 7% on a two-year basis which is truly exceptional. It has had a particularly remarkable performance in its international operated market segment where its comparable sales were up 75%, or nearly 3% on a two-year basis. The management has focused on drive-thru,

Well positioned for future success

Strong performance against tough market conditions

LIBERUM: The Liberum Leisure Digest: NLW increase - pricing power is key

Initial Equity Trading Comments - 19 February 2024

Pinewood Technologies (PINE LN) - Driving growth in automotive software

Pinewood’s transition to a pure-play automotive SaaS business is now largely complete. Today we introduce summary forecasts out to FY26 and reiterate the investment case. We see significant opportunity for Pinewood to grow its user base in the UK and internationally whilst generating high EBITDA margins and cash conversion. With a 24.5p special dividend embedded in the current price (payable Q1/Q2), the effective price today is 12.3p. Based on the Group’s FY27 target of £27m EBITDA, we estimate

Domino's Pizza - Growing the base

Domino’s Pizza Group’s (DOM’s) new CEO has set an ambitious long-term growth target, including an acceleration in its net store opening programme. With better alignment between the company and its franchisees, management believes DOM should be capable of generating improved profit growth, versus that achieved in recent years, and potential higher returns.

Marks & Spencer+ (MKS, House Stock at 255p) - 7Y FS HSBC UK tie-up– another brick in the wall

Zeus Top Picks for 2024 - 2023 review and outlook for 2024

On 9 January last year, we set out our ten top stock picks for 2023, for what turned out to be another relatively poor twelve months for UK equities due to two wars, stubbornly high inflation and further tightening of monetary policy. This was even as other major markets, such as the US, largely recovered in the year. In the 2023 calendar year, the AIM All-Share index fell 8.2% and is still 42% off its 2021 high. From the release of our 2023 top picks note, the average total return (assuming div

PROGRESSIVE: Vertu Motors: Traction control

Vertu is the fourth largest automotive retailer in the UK, with 188 sales outlets and a track record of cross-cycle growth, principally through businesses it has acquired, funded by equity, debt and most importantly cash generation. Vertu operates across the entire vehicle lifecycle, including new and used vehicle sales, and vehicle servicing, repair and parts. Service and repair is a 40+% gross margin repeating business. With economic headwinds, the transition to electric vehicles, recent overs

Dunelm Group - Appealing offer

Dunelm Group’s (DNLM’s) H124 results demonstrated the benefits of its strategy of broadening its addressable market by strengthening the core offer and expanding into newer categories, while also growing the store base and marketing more effectively. This is driving growth in the active customer base, who shop with greater frequency, leading to further market share gains in a static market. The broadening appeal of its products is demonstrated by growth being broad-based by geography, customer a

React Inititation of Coverage

React Group is a well-managed, growing UK services business with a high degree of recurring revenues (c87%).

LIBERUM: Safestay: First management contract opens up new revenue stream

Hybridan Small Cap Feast - 17 April 24

17th April 2024 * A corporate client of Hybridan LLP ** Arranged by type of listing and date of announcement *** Alphabetically arranged **** Potential means Intention to Float (ITF) has been announced Dish of the day Admissions: Delistings: What’s baking in the oven? ** Potential**** Initial Public Offerings: Reverse Takeovers: 16 April 2024: Electric Guitar (ELEG.L) Concurrent with its Admission to trading on AIM, Electric Guitar is proposing to acquire the entire issued share capital of 3radi

Hardman & Co Healthcare Index: 2023 – Capital demands dent performance

The Hardman & Co Healthcare Index (HHI) has been running since 2009. Its main function is to highlight the attractions of life sciences investments over the long term. For the second year running, apart from global economic influences affecting world markets, performance in 2023 was dented by the capital-intensive nature of the sector. The HHI fell 3.7%, to 483.8, underperforming the main London markets – FTSE 100 (+3.8%) and FTSE All-Share (3.8%) but outperforming the FTSE AIM All-Share Index (

ME Group - Modernising and growing the estate driving growth

During 2023, ME Group commenced the deployment of its next generation photobooths, which are integrated with the group’s newly developed proprietary software, gained market leadership in the Japanese photobooth market with an acquisition, continued to roll out laundry units with existing and new location partners, commenced a share buyback programme and gained entry into the FTSE 250. 2023 was a year of significant strategic and financial progress, with sales up 15%, EPS up 31% and net cash main