During the McDonald’s Corp. earnings call, Chris Kempczinski, CEO, emphasized the need for the company to apply discounts and feature value meals. McDonald’s will launch a new value menu in April featuring a 4-piece chicken McNuggets priced at $3 (75 cents a pop?) and a breakfast bundle including a McMuffin, hash brown and coffee for $4.
It is not expected that McDonald’s will sweep the QSR market with their value meals since competitors Wendy’s, Burger King and Taco Bell are also offering value promotions. This confirms that price as a restraint to traffic, especially among the lower- and middle-income demographics.
Fortune cited a Pew research survey finding 72 percent of consumers regard economic conditions as ‘fair’ or ‘poor’ and 40 percent express a pessimistic view for the future.
Over FY 2025 ending December 31st, McDonald’s earned $8,563 million on revenue of $26,855 million with a diluted EPS of $11.95. Comparable figures for FY 2024 were net earnings of $8,223 million on revenues of $25,920 million with a diluted EPS of $11.39.
McDonald’s posted a global comparable sales increase of 3.1 percent for FY 2025 with the U.S. attaining 2.1 percent.
On December 31st, 2025, McDonald’s had assets of $59,515 million with long-term debt and lease obligations of $55,908 million. On March 16th, market cap was $232,630 million compared to $223,350 million on March 31st, 2025. The 52-week range in share price was $283.47 to $341.25 with a 50-day moving average of $320.68. Forward P/E is 27.3. On a 12-month training basis, operating margin was 45.0 percent and profit margin 31.9 percent.
The introduction of value meals will place McDonald’s and burger-centric QSRs in direct competition with chicken chains including Chick-fil-A and Popeye’s Louisiana Kitchen among others, that have the advantage of lower cost for a chicken filet compared to a ground beef patty.