Long-term investors in McDonald’s have much to celebrate. The stock delivered returns of 20% a year for the past five years, 15.3% for the past 10 years and 11.4% for the past 15 years.
But the Golden Arches could finally be ready to downshift, perhaps just for a while or maybe even permanently. For a firm the size of McDonald’s, which now has a market capitalization of more than $100 billion, further growth can be increasingly hard to achieve. While analysts say sales should be alright for now, rising about 8% a year for the next three to five years (just like they did for the prior 10 years), the bottom line could become an issue. Read more.