McDonald’s Sees Opportunity In US Market Amid Lagging Comparable Store Sales – ‘We Don't Have A Strategy Problem’

• The restaurant chain’s U.S. comparable sales grew 0.8% in Q2, compared to 2.5% growth for the same period last year.
• To address the problem in its home market, McDonald’s appointed Skye Anderson as president of U.S. operations.
• During the second quarter, total revenue came in at $7.10 billion, and adjusted EPS were $3.38.

Fast-food giant McDonald's (MCD) on Tuesday reported lower comparable store sales in its U.S. market for the second quarter on top of reporting a top-line miss and a bottom-line miss.

During an earnings call with analysts, CEO Chris Kempczinski said restaurant-level execution was inconsistent across the system, and teams were overwhelmed by too many deployments in the quarter, which led to less efficient operations. 

“We don't have a strategy problem. We simply didn't execute at the level we needed to in the second quarter,” Kempczinski said. The company also claimed that overall results reflect a challenging consumer environment, as QSR industry traffic in several of its largest markets continued to be flat to negative.

Shares of the company are trading up more than 1% in early open market trading.

Addressing US Problems With Urgency

The restaurant chain’s U.S. comparable sales grew 0.8% in the second quarter (Q2), compared to 2.5% growth for the same period last year, hurt by a slow start to the quarter and comparable sales turning slightly negative in April. However, CEO Kempczinski said he continues to see opportunities in the U.S. market, which will largely be unlocked through execution.

To address the problem in its home market, McDonald’s announced the appointment of company veteran Skye Anderson as president of U.S. operations, who most recently served as chief operating officer for the unit.

“In short, we're acting with urgency to improve our baseline guest traffic and put the U.S. business in a stronger position as we exit 2026,” CFO Ian Borden said on the call.

MCD Q2 Earnings At A Glance

For Q2, revenue rose 4% to $7.10 billion, below the Fiscal AI estimate of $7.13 billion. The company's adjusted earnings per share (EPS) were $3.38, exceeding the $3.32-per-share estimate.

During the quarter, the company took a pre-tax restructuring charge of $52 million as part of an internal effort to modernize workflow.

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment about MCD turned ‘bullish’ from ‘neutral’ amid ‘extremely high’ message volumes over the last 24 hours. MCD stock is down more than 12% so far this year and over the past 12 months, underperforming the S&P 500.

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