MCD vs. SBUX, CMG, YUM, DRI, DPZ, TXRH, EAT, CAKE, WEN, and PZZA
Should you be buying McDonald's stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of McDonald's include Starbucks (SBUX), Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG), Yum! Brands (YUM), Darden Restaurants (DRI), Domino's Pizza (DPZ), Texas Roadhouse (TXRH), Brinker International (EAT), Cheesecake Factory (CAKE), Wendy's (WEN), and Papa Johns International (PZZA). These companies are all part of the "restaurants" industry.
McDonald's vs.
Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) and McDonald's (NYSE:MCD) are both large-cap retail/wholesale companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their community ranking, dividends, profitability, media sentiment, institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations, earnings and valuation.
In the previous week, McDonald's had 11 more articles in the media than Starbucks. MarketBeat recorded 88 mentions for McDonald's and 77 mentions for Starbucks. McDonald's' average media sentiment score of 1.01 beat Starbucks' score of 0.84 indicating that McDonald's is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
McDonald's has a net margin of 31.73% compared to Starbucks' net margin of 9.73%. Starbucks' return on equity of -44.97% beat McDonald's' return on equity.
Starbucks currently has a consensus price target of $97.92, indicating a potential upside of 17.02%. McDonald's has a consensus price target of $325.91, indicating a potential upside of 3.90%. Given Starbucks' higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Starbucks is more favorable than McDonald's.
McDonald's has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Starbucks. McDonald's is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Starbucks, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Starbucks pays an annual dividend of $2.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. McDonald's pays an annual dividend of $7.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Starbucks pays out 88.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. McDonald's pays out 62.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Starbucks has increased its dividend for 15 consecutive years and McDonald's has increased its dividend for 49 consecutive years.
Starbucks has a beta of 0.99, indicating that its stock price is 1% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, McDonald's has a beta of 0.57, indicating that its stock price is 43% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Starbucks received 33 more outperform votes than McDonald's when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 76.04% of users gave Starbucks an outperform vote while only 71.82% of users gave McDonald's an outperform vote.
72.3% of Starbucks shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 70.3% of McDonald's shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of Starbucks shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of McDonald's shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Summary
McDonald's beats Starbucks on 13 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
Get McDonald's News Delivered to You Automatically
Sign up to receive the latest news and ratings for MCD and its competitors with MarketBeat's FREE daily newsletter.
New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding {thisCompany.Symbol} and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Skip ChartMedia Sentiment Over Time
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
Skip Chart
McDonald's Competitors List
Related Companies and Tools
This page (NYSE:MCD) was last updated on 6/1/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff