“(Reuters) – McDonald’s Corp on Friday threw cold water on hopes that its restaurant sales would accelerate, warning that global sales at established restaurants would be slightly lower in April.
The forecast sent shares of the world’s biggest fast-food chain down 1.8 percent to $100.10 in morning trading.
The shares recently hit a record high above $103 on expectations that results would improve in the second half of 2013, when the chain will no longer be up against year-earlier U.S. results that were bolstered by unseasonably warm winter weather.
Results were expected to improve in April because the company would only have to top 3.3 percent growth in global restaurant sales in April 2012. By comparison, sales were up a whopping 7.7 percent in March 2012.
The McDonald’s forecast for April “does put a little bit of a damper on the theory that as soon as comparisons got easier, comps were going to take off,” Bernstein Research analyst Sara Senatoresaid.
While investors and analysts are giving McDonald’s new chief executive, Don Thompson, and his management team time to revive restaurant sales, they could get impatient as the year wears on.
“There will be some pressure on the guys to pick up the pace,” Edward Jones analyst Jack Russo said.
McDonald’s reported first-quarter profit that fell short of Wall Street expectations as global comparable sales fell 1 percent – slightly less than the 1.1 percent decline forecast by analysts polled by Consensus Metrix…..”
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