McDonald’s Corporation (MCD): Those Who Downgrade The Stock Will Be “Wrong,” Says Jim Cramer

McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD) is one of the Jim Cramer Reveals Potential US Rare Earth Trump Card & Discusses These 11 Stocks.

McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD) is a frequent feature of Cramer’s morning show. The fast food giant’s shares have lost 1.7% year-to-date primarily due to 5% since mid-June. McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD), like other food companies, is at the risk of its business being disrupted or shrunk due to GLP-1 drugs as they help users control their hunger. The shares fell in June after a downgrade from Redburn. Commenting on stock downgrades, Cramer outlined:

“[On a third downgrade based on a lower value proposition than before in case of a recession] They’re gonna be wrong. They are gonna be wrong. Okay Kempczinski is under fire because of the chicken strips and then next week we’ll all get chicken strips with the wraps. You want to see how ugly chicken strips are, they’re ugly, they don’t look like, I don’t know what they look like. . .but I know that Chris will kill that if it doesn’t sell . . . And people are really underrating Chris. He is a great CEO. McDonald’s has a history of getting rid of CEOs if they don’t work, getting rid of dishes if they don’t work.

“I think that McDonald’s is going to shrug off every one of these downgrades and you have to buy the stock. Because Kempczinski’s just not gonna sit there and say oh man these strips are bad but let’s just keep jamming them down the throat of franchisees. . .He watches the show, he’s saying hey man I don’t know, that’s the fourth downgrade. . . he’s smart, he’s not Oklo!”

Earlier, Cramer discussed Morgan Stanley and Loop Capital downgrading McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD)’s stock:

“It amazes me that analysts refuse to learn from their mistakes that some stocks should not be taken off the buy list. Today, Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock of McDonald’s, saying it’s arguably too expensive and that it will probably not be insulated from some structural pressures on fast food. Now, with the stock at 25 times earnings, consensus estimate’s too high. Morgan Stanley moved [it] to Equal Weight or Hold. [The] stock dropped $2 and 58 cents or 0.84% on that.

Now, it would not have made much of an impact on me if McDonald’s hadn’t also been downgraded by Loop Capital on Friday, again, concerned that it won’t beat the consensus numbers. Look, I understand the downgrades. Stock’s up 5%. It’s holding its own, but I think that in the long run, it has never paid to downgrade Mickey D’s. It’s the king. It offers good value and it’s incredibly well run…

The main thing Loop cites for what they think will be a shortfall is negative reaction to the new chicken strips launch… I say, wait a second, this is McDonald’s. Do you think this company is stupid? Do you think that CEO Chris Kempczinski doesn’t pay attention to these things? Do you think he ignores the franchises? Do you think he doesn’t know the product’s ugly? Do you think that he’ll bet everything on a product that people don’t like?

A cook in a busy kitchen assembling cheeseburgers for orders.

Listen, McDonald’s is an amazing company. It didn’t become amazing because it stuck with bad ideas… The strength of McDonald’s is that they don’t fight battles they can’t win. When something doesn’t work, they just dump it and they move on. Which is why I say you downgrade a stock like McDonald’s at your own peril.”

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.