McDonald's (MCD), Under Armour (UAA) in Hot Water

Monday, November 4, 2019

McDonald’s MCD CEO Steve Easterbrook has been forced out as head of the international quick-service restaurant (QSR) giant by its board of directors Friday, after an undisclosed consensual relationship with an underling at the company had been deemed inappropriate. McDonald’s USA President Chris Kempczinski has been named interim CEO.

Easterbrook had been credited with a strong turnaround at McDonald’s during his tenure, which began in March of 2015. Empowering franchisees and building aggressively in its international markets were hallmarks of the company’s success, which rose 92% over the 4 1/2 years Easterbrook was in charge. This is better performance than any publicly-traded QSR competition over this time period.

Shares of McDonald’s are down a bit in early trading this Monday morning, but have not collapsed. Down roughly 1.6% at this hour, shares had lost around $16 per share over the past three weeks. These numbers follow an all-time high in McDonald’s stock value, north of $221 per share back in early August. McDonald’s had carried a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) recommendation with a Value-Growth-Momentum score of D.

Under Armour (UAA) is another company on troubled waters this morning, after having posted Q3 earnings and sales beats ahead of the opening bell: 23 cents per share outperformed the 18 cents expected, though down from 25 cents in the year-ago quarter. Revenues of $1.43 billion in the quarter was 1.53% higher than the Zacks consensus but down a tick from $1.44 billion a year ago.

However, the company has cut its full-year guidance on the top line to +2%, whereas previously they had expected 3-4%. Further, Under Armour is now under federal investigation regarding its accounting practices. This coincides with founder and CEO Kevin Plank having announced two weeks ago he will be stepping down as of January 1st of next year. Shares of Under Armour are down 15% in today’s pre-market, wiping out nearly all the company’s gains year to date. For more on UAA’s earnings, click here.

Mark Vickery

Senior Editor

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