I was watching CNBC early this evening (perhaps that was my first mistake), and the headline blaring on the bottom was about McDonalds’ operations in Japan. McDonalds is currently planning to shutter 74 restaurants in the country of Japan, as net income generated by McDonalds operations this year will be just a bit below $50 million or so, about half of what analysts had been expecting ($91 million).
The question on CNBC then became: Should current shareholders of the stock sell?
All of the respondents relied on predictions about the McDonalds’ future growth in Japan to craft their answers. Not one of them even took into consideration the overall profitability of McDonalds as a corporation or took a holistic view of what is going on at the company.
In 2012, McDonalds made shareholders $5.36 in total profits. By the end of 2013, McDonalds will be making their shareholders $5.57 in … Read the rest of this article!