McDonald's Mixed Q3 Leads To Upside

Stephens analyst Will Slabaugh maintains his Overweight rating and a price target of $175 for McDonald's Corporation MCD after it reported earnings Tuesday. He said this was another impressive quarter for the company as it managed to post its tenth consecutive EPS meet/beat.

U.S. same-store sales grew 4.10 percent, while the global same-store sales grew 6 percent, which was better than consensus. McDonald's expects SG&A costs to decline 7 percent in 2017, year over year, and it expects interest expense to increase 5 percent. The company expects capital expenditures are going to reach $1.7 billion in 2017.

Slabaugh said the valuation for the stock is reasonable, given its relatively conservative balance sheet, although the stock trades near its historically high valuation.