McDonald’s franchisee checks see comps growth below estimates, says Loop Capital

Loop Capital keeps a Buy rating and $342 price target on McDonald’s (MCD) but notes that the firm’s U.S. franchisee checks indicate that same-store sales growth came in modestly below expectations in Q4. Per contacts, same-store sales remained sluggish at flat year-over-year during the last seven weeks of Q4, which implies full-Q4 same-store sales were flat to down 50 bps – modestly below the firm’s prior estimate for 0.5% growth and consensus at up 0.3%, the analyst tells investors in a research note.