In the latest market close, McDonald's (MCD) reached $292.18, with a -0.88% movement compared to the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.55%. Elsewhere, the Dow saw a downswing of 0.06%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq appreciated by 1.24%.

The investment community will be closely monitoring the performance of McDonald's in its forthcoming earnings report. On that day, McDonald's is projected to report earnings of $2.86 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 3.05%. Alongside, our most recent consensus estimate is anticipating revenue of $6.52 billion, indicating a 1.84% upward movement from the same quarter last year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for McDonald's. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Our research suggests that these changes in estimates have a direct relationship with upcoming stock price performance. To take advantage of this, we've established the Zacks Rank, an exclusive model that considers these estimated changes and delivers an operational rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, spanning from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), boasts an impressive track record of outperformance, audited externally, with #1 ranked stocks yielding an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.14% lower. McDonald's is currently a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

In the context of valuation, McDonald's is at present trading with a Forward P/E ratio of 23.56. This expresses a premium compared to the average Forward P/E of 23.31 of its industry.

It is also worth noting that MCD currently has a PEG ratio of 3.69. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. As the market closed yesterday, the Retail - Restaurants industry was having an average PEG ratio of 2.08.

The Retail - Restaurants industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. With its current Zacks Industry Rank of 157, this industry ranks in the bottom 38% of all industries, numbering over 250.

The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the vigor of our specific industry groups by computing the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks incorporated in the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.