Is the business good?
How good a business is MCD?
McDonald's earns 27% on the capital it employs against a 9.0% cost of capital, so the business is worth more the bigger it gets.
27%
Return on invested capital · cost of capital 9.0% · 18 points above what the capital costs: growth creates value
- Operating margin
- 46%
Operating margin · Restaurants median 8.6% · 12 months to Q1 2026
- Cash conversion
- 0.81×
Cash conversion · 0.82× a year ago · some of the reported profit has not turned into cash yet
| Year | Operating margin |
|---|---|
| FY2020 | 38% |
| FY2021 | 45% |
| FY2022 | 40% |
| FY2023 | 46% |
| FY2024 | 45% |
| FY2025 | 46% |
Details›
- Operating margin12 months to Q1 2026
- 46%
- Net margin12 months to Q1 2026
- 32%
- Free cash flow margin
- 26%
- Revenue, trailing twelve months
- $27.4B
- Free cash flow, trailing twelve months
- $7.04B
- Net income, trailing twelve months
- $8.68B
- Return on invested capitaloperating profit after tax ÷ debt + equity − cash
- 27%
Margins, capital and share counts from the statements as filed with the SEC; cash conversion from the cash flow statement.