It appears you can't supersize your McShares for a while...

[Sanis Prent]

BUSINESS ALERT
from The Wall Street Journal


Jan. 23, 2003

McDonald's Corp. swung to a $343.8 million loss in the fourth quarter, its first quarterly deficit since going public 37 years ago. The shortfall was deeper than the company expected, as the world's biggest fast-food chain took charges of $810.2 million for restructuring and other items.

On the upswing, I hope their stock takes a hit for it. Can you imagine the 2nd quarter upswing. A 37 year consecutive positive earings streak :D. Bottom out, buy low, and wait for the 2nd quarter to post gains again. Cash money!

I'll be watching their quarterly expectations and quotes. This could be a nifty bargain :)

[ReaperFett]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm



Would you say you're good at picking good picks? :)

[Sanis Prent]

No...this is definitely a layman's reccommendation. I'd try it on a whim, just to see if it worked, but I wouldn't do any serious investing on it. Maybe I'll look and see some of their performance ratios. If they've got a good trend on price to book, then I might just try it!

[ReaperFett]

Good luck :)




Im thinking of putting some money into some company called Enron. Their shares took a slight dip recently, and I think they could rise soon! I mean, not like there's any big reason they dropped, is it?




;)

[AmazonBabe]

:lol Fett!

[Sanis Prent]

Traded as MCD on the NYSE

Hit a year round low today, with shares trading at 14.64. It rebounded a little bit up to 15 even.

Market cap is at $19,611,000,000.00

Last publicized quarter's Total Shareholder Equity was set at $10,641,500,000.00

P/B ratio is currently 1.84.

My unqualified guess is that these sour reportings still haven't settled. Probably a few weeks away from being out of the aftermath. Its yearly high was over $30 per share, so its obviously got room to move.

I'd like to get ahold of the reportings for this past quarter, though...but I can't find them. My gut is telling me that I'm matching an old SE report to a new market cap...but I need to look some more to make sure. If I'm right about these numbers and the P/B, then I wouldn't buy....not yet at least.

[Sanis Prent]

Just found the P/B postings, and the data's fresh. So the 1.84 I calculated for that is right.

No buy...not yet!

[Daiquiri Van-Derveld]

I saw on the AIM newsy-thing that McDonald's was getting rid of 500 of its stores ... or whatever you want to call them :\

[Figrin D'an]

I heard that as well, Daiq. Pretty significant layoffs for those 500 locations.

It'll drop a bit more, I agree... not everything from this has completely settled yet.

Of course, my opinion is nearly completely uneducated...

[Sanis Prent]

Well P/B, or price to book ratio, is a tool to define the gaps between a stock's value in a market environment, versus how much value the accounting books of the parent company note it at. If the ratio hits one, which is rare...its a perfect match between market and book values. If the ratio is high, the shares are being assigned inflated value, and will likely fall. If the ratio is low, the ratios are being undersold, and shares will usually rise.

This is the best statistical predictor of a stock's performance. That being said, its still not a good predictor of success...just the best of several. You won't make great decisions on P/B alone though.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

P/B = Peanut butter, right? :)

[Daiquiri Van-Derveld]

P/B = party boys ;)

[Zasz Grimm]

P/B = Pretty Bitchy

Or..

Pretty Bitch.

:p

[Moltar]

I thought P/B = No Sense!!!

Gosh at least invest in Walmart (a company whos at least keeping all of it's stores open).

As for the Fast food industry... FORGET IT! With Burger King going down in flames and now McDonalds falling, I'd keep my money out of there if I were you..... Not only can you get fat, you'll lose money as well.

[Sanis Prent]

Definitely not buying Walmart stock. Its bloated and doesn't have much prospect of a high rate of return.

I'm interested in MCD's shares BECAUSE they're falling. The reason is due to putting a lot of money into PP&E upgrades. They had more capital expenditures than revenues. It won't kill them...should only make them stronger.

[Sanis Prent]

Right now, its at about 14.98/share. Still losing steam, but not so drastically.

[Vinny Red]

Hey watch out for Nortel. After restructuring and winning a recent lawsuit, their stock is on the rise. And right now it's a bargain too

[Captain Tyle]

Looks good. Cheap stock, and has been on the rise for the past few days. However, its got a high p/b ratio....about the average for the industry currently. So...it could be riding on some industry-wide trend, that could lose steam. Its been a bit all over the place over the past 2 weeks.

But cheap stock....that's for sure.