McDonald’s Stock Beats Inflation… Again!

This week, McDonald’s raised their dividend by 10%.

Shares now yield $6.08 annually, with quarterly payments of $1.52.

McDonald’s has paid consistent, rising dividends for the past 46 years. And the stock has continually rewarded shareholders with both income and capital appreciation.

If you bought $100 of McDonald’s stock in 2007, right before the Global Financial Crisis, your investment would now be worth $415.48.

Even with some of the worst market timing imaginable, you’d still have a quadruple-bagger on your hands. And you would have beaten the S&P 500 by almost 4% annually.

Here’s why I believe McDonald’s shareholders have enjoyed such impressive returns.

Innovation

For most of my adult life, I lived in Vietnam. The one country on Earth where McDonald’s failed to find success. And even before that, I rarely ate fast food. So, I hadn’t entered a McDonald’s restaurant at any point between 2011 and 2019.

My perception of McDonald’s came from the late 2000’s. Mainly, that restaurants were gross and dirty.

In 2019, I was visited my parents for Christmas and the power went out at their house. Needing to get some late-night work done, I went to the only place open —…