Did McDonald's Just Change The '2 For $2' Menu To '2 For $5'?

• Shares of McDonald's Corporation MCD appreciated 24.04 percent over the past year, rising almost to the 52 week high on February 1 at $124.61.
• Jake Bartlett of SunTrust Robinson Humphrey has maintained a Buy rating on the company.
• Checks suggest that the company has modified its “McPick 2” offering from “2 for $2” to “2 for $5.”

Analyst Jake Bartlett reported that “MCD's '2 for $2' promo ended last week in all the markets we checked. In the markets that have already launched the '2 for $5' offering, some are only offering the Filet-O-Fish and others are offering a full premium sandwich line-up.”

All McDonald’s stores are expected to launch the full “2 for $5” offering by the end of February.

Although the “2 for $2” offer was scheduled to end in February, Bartlett expressed surprise regarding the two-week gap during which there will be no clear value offering across most markets, as well as the “shift away from deep value that the '2 for $2' represented, given our view that McDonald's needs to re-establish its dominant value positioning to sustain its US turnaround.”

On the other hand, the company’s move away from deep discounting could help competitors jump on to the bandwagon, which in turn would ease the heavily promotional environment.

In addition, Bartlett believes that the “2 for $5” offer would drive check and franchisee profitability.