McDonald's Q3 Earnings Preview: Stock Shows Bearish Signals, But Long-Term Strength Still Holds

McDonald’s Corp MCD will be reporting its third-quarter earnings on Tuesday. Wall Street expects $3.20 in EPS and $6.82 billion in revenues as the company reports before market hours.

The company currently faces some scrutiny due to a recent E. coli outbreak linked to its Quarter Pounders.

Despite these challenges, analysts believe the outbreak's impact on McDonald’s stock will be minimal. However, this situation, along with rising pricing concerns, adds a layer of uncertainty ahead of the company's earnings report.

Read Also: McDonald’s Broken Ice Cream Machines Can Finally Be Fixed As New Copyright Exemption Allows 3rd Party Repairs

The stock is up 14% over the past year, but is essentially flat YTD.

Let’s look at what the charts indicate for McDonald’s stock and how the stock currently maps against Wall Street estimates.

McDonald’s Stock Faces Strong Bearish Trend Ahead Of Q3 Earnings 

McDonald’s stock is currently facing a strongly bearish trend, with its share price of $297.90 trading below its five-day, 20-day and 50-day exponential moving averages.

Chart created using Benzinga Pro

This indicates significant selling pressure and suggests the stock could face further bearish movement in the near term. Specifically, MCD's share price is below its eight-day ($306.44), 20-day ($305.86) and 50-day ($297.93) simple moving averages, all of which signal potential continued downside.

However, in the long term, there are some bullish signs. McDonald's is trading above its 200-day SMA of $279.31, which suggests there is still underlying strength in the broader trend.

Additionally, the MACD indicator stands at 1.32, signaling bullish momentum, while the declining Relative Strength Index (RSI) of 44.43 suggests the stock is experiencing moderate weakness but is not yet approaching oversold territory. The RSI slipping below 30 could create an opportunity for a rebound if buyers step in.

McDonald’s Analysts Not Too Bullish Either

Ratings & Consensus Estimates: The consensus analyst rating on McDonald’s stock stands at a Buy with a price target of $318.31. However, the most recent analyst ratings from Guggenheim, Baird, and Wedbush on Oct. 23 give McDonald’s stock an average price target of $290, implying a 2.59% downside.

MCD Price Action: McDonald’s stock was trading 1.46% higher at $296.87 at the time of publication Monday.

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