Aviance Capital Partners LLC Sells 1,610 Shares of McDonald’s Co. (NYSE:MCD)

Aviance Capital Partners LLC lowered its position in McDonald’s Co. (NYSE:MCD) by 13.7% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 10,158 shares of the fast-food giant’s stock after selling 1,610 shares during the quarter. Aviance Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in McDonald’s were worth $2,945,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Edgestream Partners L.P. purchased a new stake in McDonald’s in the fourth quarter worth about $649,000. Marco Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of McDonald’s by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Marco Investment Management LLC now owns 14,617 shares of the fast-food giant’s stock worth $4,237,000 after purchasing an additional 240 shares during the period. K2 Financial Inc. purchased a new position in McDonald’s during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,068,000. BBR Partners LLC raised its stake in McDonald’s by 40.4% in the fourth quarter. BBR Partners LLC now owns 7,000 shares of the fast-food giant’s stock worth $2,029,000 after buying an additional 2,013 shares in the last quarter. Finally, West Family Investments Inc. boosted its position in McDonald’s by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. West Family Investments Inc. now owns 4,876 shares of the fast-food giant’s stock valued at $1,414,000 after acquiring an additional 79 shares in the last quarter. 70.29% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other McDonald’s news, EVP Tiffanie L. Boyd sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.27, for a total transaction of $309,270.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 5,564 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,720,778.28. This represents a 15.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Joseph M. Erlinger sold 300 shares of McDonald’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.75, for a total value of $84,225.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 7,887 shares in the company, valued at $2,214,275.25. This represents a 3.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 33,504 shares of company stock worth $10,206,575 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.23% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on MCD. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on McDonald’s from $335.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Wedbush lifted their price objective on shares of McDonald’s from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of McDonald’s from $336.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of McDonald’s from $336.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their target price on McDonald’s from $305.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, McDonald’s currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $323.61.

McDonald’s Stock Performance

MCD opened at $310.54 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $295.13 and a two-hundred day moving average of $296.01. McDonald’s Co. has a fifty-two week low of $243.53 and a fifty-two week high of $317.90. The stock has a market capitalization of $221.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.26, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 0.71.

McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 10th. The fast-food giant reported $2.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.83. McDonald’s had a negative return on equity of 181.63% and a net margin of 31.73%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that McDonald’s Co. will post 12.25 earnings per share for the current year.

McDonald’s Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be paid a dividend of $1.77 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $7.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.28%. McDonald’s’s dividend payout ratio is currently 62.16%.

About McDonald’s

McDonald’s Corp. engages in the operation and franchising of restaurants. It operates through the following segments: U.S., International Operated Markets, and International Developmental Licensed Markets and Corporate. The U.S. segment focuses its operations on the United States. The International Operated Markets segment consists of operations and the franchising of restaurants in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and the U.K.