McDonald's Q2 2026 earnings: profit tops estimates, but U.S. sales growth stalls
McDonald's beat profit expectations but narrowly missed on revenue as U.S. sales growth slowed sharply on value-menu execution issues.
| Q2 2026 | Reported | Expected | Surprise |
|---|---|---|---|
| EPS | $3.38 | $3.35 | +0.8% |
| Revenue | $7.10B | $7.20B | -1.4% |
Key takeaways
- Adjusted profit per share came in slightly above what Wall Street analysts had penciled in, but total revenue landed just short of forecasts — a mixed quarter where cost control and menu pricing helped the bottom line even as top-line sales growth cooled.
- Global comparable sales (sales at restaurants open at least a year) rose 1.3%, a sharp slowdown from the 3.8% pace a year earlier. In the U.S., comparable sales grew just 0.8%, as customers paying more per visit only partly offset fewer people walking through the door.
- Management said about two-thirds of the U.S. sales shortfall traced to problems executing its value/discount menu offerings — meaning promotions meant to draw in budget-conscious diners weren’t landing as planned.
- McDonald’s named Skye Anderson as the new president of its U.S. business, a leadership change tied directly to the push to fix American sales trends.
- CEO Chris Kempczinski said the international business is performing well but that the company sees room to ‘raise the bar’ and speed up results specifically in the U.S., its largest market.
- The company’s very high operating margin (in the mid-40% range) and return on equity reflect McDonald’s franchise-heavy model, where most restaurants are run by independent operators paying McDonald’s rent and fees — a structure that keeps profitability high even when store-level sales growth is soft.
- McDonald’s pushed back its target of reaching 50,000 restaurants worldwide to the end of 2028, a year later than previously planned, while also raising planned capital spending for 2026 to $3.7-$3.9 billion to fund faster restaurant construction.
- For the rest of 2026, the company guided to an operating margin in the mid-to-high 40% range, restaurant expansion adding about 2.5 percentage points to systemwide sales growth, and free cash flow conversion in the low-to-mid 80% range — signaling continued heavy investment in new stores alongside efforts to protect profitability.
Q2 2026 in context
| Metric | Jun 2026 | Jun 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $7.1B | $6.8B | +3.7% |
| Net income | $2.4B | $2.3B | +4.8% |
| Free cash flow | $2.0B | $1.3B | +57.6% |
| Diluted EPS | $3.32 | $3.14 | +5.7% |
| Gross margin | 90.4% | 90.4% | -0.0 pts |
| Operating margin | 47.0% | 47.2% | -0.2 pts |
| Net margin | 33.3% | 32.9% | +0.3 pts |
Figures for the quarter ended Jun 2026 and the quarter ended Jun 2025, as reported to the SEC.
How the stock took it
McDonald's Corp closed at $265.23 on Aug 3, 2026, the last session before the report, and at $274.00 on Aug 5, 2026, the first session after it — +3.3% across the report.
| Earlier report | Close before | Close after | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 7, 2026 | $284.10 | $275.75 | -2.9% |
| Nov 5, 2025 | $299.21 | $298.41 | -0.3% |
Closes from the market's daily record. Each figure spans the report date — from the last session that closed before it to the first that closed after — because a company may report before the open or after the close.
Fundamentals
| Metric | Value | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Gross margin | 57.4% | Trailing 12 months |
| Operating margin | 46.2% | Trailing 12 months |
| Net profit margin | 31.7% | Trailing 12 months |
| Pretax margin | 40.4% | Trailing 12 months |
| EPS | $12.31 | Trailing 12 months |
| Revenue growth (YoY) | 6.3% | Trailing 12 months |
| EPS growth (YoY) | 5.4% | Trailing 12 months |
| Return on equity | 95.1% | Trailing 12 months |
Sources: company report · earnings call