If you’ve been having a tougher time than normal finding eggs in the grocery store these days, then you know how fast-food restaurant chain McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) feels. It’s been unusually difficult to land the hen fruit, particularly in the quantities McDonald’s uses. Its move to pare back breakfast hours—in Australia, anyway—is in response to that, and shares ticked up fractionally in Wednesday afternoon’s trading.
In a move that’s sure to enrage night owls everywhere (in Australia), McDonald’s is paring back breakfast hours a full 90 minutes. Basically, the ongoing avian flu issue is leading to a lot of chicken herds getting culled. That means eggs are tougher to find, and McDonald’s egg-heavy breakfast gets that much harder to produce.
Thus, McDonald’s revealed it would now stop serving breakfast at 10:30 AM instead of at high noon, which is traditionally when the switch to lunch should begin. Naturally, McDonald’s rushed to reassure grumpy patrons that this was all temporary and that it was eagerly working to restore normalcy.
Making Up For Lost (Breakfast) Time
One of the key advantages McDonald’s has is that while it may lose ground with its breakfast sales, it has plans to step things up with new offerings. For instance, McNuggets fans will be able to try Special Grade Garlic Sauce for the first time, which is based on a Japanese manga, “Jujutsu Kaisen.”
However, there are still signs that all is not well; recent reports from former McDonald’s corporate chef Mike Haracz reveal that some things are not what they used to be. In fact, Haracz particularly recommends diners stay away from bagel breakfast sandwiches altogether, noting that the “folded egg” used is usually “dry and lack(s) flavor.” Haracz had kind words for the double quarter-pounder with cheese but noted it should be eaten immediately for the best effect.
Is McDonald’s a Buy, Sell, or Hold?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on MCD stock based on 18 Buys and nine Holds assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 13.83% loss in its share price over the past year, the average MCD price target of $308.58 per share implies 23.53% upside potential.
